Robot Base For First Robotics 2015 "Recycle Rush"

[Don52]

This year I was the mentor responsible for the mechanical engineering design of the robot for the Thunder Chickens team 217. Two other mechanical design engineering mentors and I worked with three High School students to design the robot mechanism. The primary task this year is lifting up totes and stacking them on platforms. The team decided on a design that was like a fork lift. We had forks that could move in and out to grab the totes and up and down to lift them. We designed the mast so that it could tilt back 5 degrees, just like a conventional fork lift. Each wheel of the robot could both steer and drive. We put the motors and reducers as far back as possible to counterbalance the weight of the overhung totes. The first three pictures are from SolidWorks to get you oriented. The rest of the pictures show my progress welding the base together. The base is made of Vex Pro 6061-T6 Aluminum stock. We used a 1" x 2" x .096" rectangular tube and a 1" x 1" x .096" rectangular tube.

[Don52]

And here are some pictures of the weld joints that I used. The last picture is of the complete robot lifting totes.