Gatorbotics CAD Blog

Pictures of Sadie

2009-02-18T12:54:00.000-08:00

Updates on Sadie. Enjoy! We've color-coded everything now, too.

Sadie!

2009-02-15T13:44:00.000-08:00

So, the team has decided to name our robot Sadie in an almost unanimous vote. And this, as of today, is Sadie. Isn't she pretty?

Allie and I have been working very hard with Solidworks, and someday we will add the correct tube and front brush, but at the moment we don't have the measurements for those parts, as they haven't been built or designed yet.

Annie Returns!

2009-02-10T19:44:00.000-08:00

Annie came back to Robotics today after helping our school team win the trivia contest FOMF. Today, while bringing to attention the problems we need to fix with our sketch, nothing actually happened. Annie did, however, did devote 30 minutes of her time to drawing up a Cambodian temple (I believe I have the right kind of temple). It looks lovely and it gave her some time to practice what she has learned in Solidworks without needing it to be perfect by anything but her standards.

Now that she has left I will again attempt to fix our problem with the corkscrew fitting on the chassis. Last night I changed the spacing of the base plate supports for the corkscrew and then reversed the orrientation of the base plate on the chassis. I think I need to switch one of the problems back to the way they were in order for everything to work correctly. I will repost if I fix everything and have a prettier picture by the end of the evening. If not, you can assume that I am frustrated as hell that the picture is not cooperating and will wait until tomorrow to get Annie's insight on the problem.

Never Mind

2009-02-09T20:25:00.000-08:00

So I tried to rearrange the base plate for the corkscrew to try and make the corkscrew stand directly over the chassis without hanging over the edges. After many attempts to fix this the corkscrew just hangs of the other edge even more than it did on the side it was on before. When Annie returns tomorrow we will work some more to fix this problem.

The Corkscrew Lives!!!

2009-02-09T19:22:00.000-08:00

So today I took it upon myself in Annie's absence to add in the extra helix to the corkscrew design. It took a while because the different helixes did not want to cooperate and line up correctly. Eventually it all worked out, but only after I deleted all of the mates in the assembly that were holding the piece together. I was about to an additional helix for the third part of the corkscrew until I realized that I could just reuse the outer helix that I already had. I used two outer helixes with a 22 in. diameter and one inner helix with a 13 in. diameter.

I ended the day by adding the corkscrew onto the chassis. The corkscrew, as we have it drawn and put together now, hangs over the side of the chassis but with a little tweeking that problem should be solved in no time. I think I just need to move the positioning of the helixes on the base plate and the corkscrew should fit within the confines of the chassis.

The next step will be the drawign of the various brushes that are included in our design. If we are unable to draw actual brushes then we will make rectangles which look like sponges and put them in the design as brushes.

Changed design for the corkscrew

2009-02-08T14:53:00.000-08:00

Well, I just found out today that the design for the corkscrew has been changed to include three helixes instead of two. I have been working on the design while Annie has been FOMFing her weekend out. I have run into a problem wit the Sweep tool but hopefully that will sort itself out soon. The gearboxes have been moved to the front of the chassis in "thought" design so now i just need to move them on the actually CAD design. Other than that the weekend has been fairly uneventful.

Tanya joined us on Thursday night to help us with some of our questions involving the corkscrew. We developed a drawing of two helixes together, and then altered it for the then design of the two helixes being separated by 4.5" in height. We connected them together on a base plate. For the three helixes wee will jsut enlarge the base plate and add another connector and elevate it to the correct height.

We are coming down to the final week before ship so we will just work to make sure the CAD drawings match what we have decided to actually build.

The Corkscrew has supports . . . kind of

2009-02-03T19:22:00.000-08:00

So Annie was not here today, but I decided to sketch an approximation for the support system of the corkscrew. It is a 23" x 23" x 56" box made of 1" x 1" tubing. The posts will not necessarily be connected by a square at the bottom, but I thought it would help to visualize the supports.

Next I think we will tackle the task of CAD-ing a brush that we can add into our final drawing of the chassis. Right now our brush in the corkscrew is a cylinder with the appearance of a sponge.

Ship Day is 13 days away so most of the CAD-ing that we have left to do is just for our learning experience and practice. We are looking forward to rejoining the build team as the season winds down as well.

Chassis Design

2009-02-01T14:38:00.001-08:00

Here is the Chassis in CAD. It's 38 by 28 in. We have found out that the pointy ends were illegal, so the plow area is now squared off.

Finished Corkscrew

2009-02-01T14:32:00.000-08:00

We drew the corkscrew today in Solidworks. Here it is!

Isn't it pretty? It's 55 in. tall, 22 in. wide, and the inner corkscrew is offset by 4.5 in.

We also made a bridge out of Balsa wood and a brush made out of sponge. Aren't we productive?

Yeah, in class we're making this, so Allie and I were bored enough to make one in Solidworks! Good practice, though.

Welcome!

2009-02-01T14:17:00.001-08:00

Welcome to the official blog of the Gatorbotics CAD team! We use Solidworks to design our robot for the FIRST Robotics Competition. This year, the competition Lunacy requires us to design a robot that picks up Wild Time Orbit Balls off a slick surface and deposit them in the trailer of an opposing alliance. So far, we have designed our chassis and have made some headway in the design of our elevation device, a corkscrew.

Soon, we will post pictures of our Solidworks achievements.