The cardboard mock-up. The claw function is on the front of the robot, the proteus is the box in the middle, and the antenna push is the long cylinder at the back. This was modeled with Vex motors.
Constructing a robot completely from scratch is a difficult task. Guided by the Design Problem and Specification document, G6 sat down together and created a list of initial brainstorming ideas for each mechanism:
These ideas were then transcribed into screening matrices to screen out bad ideas and select the ones that seemed to work the best. Each idea for each part was laid out in a graph and assigned a number based on how well it fit its given criterion.
Screening Matrices (Revised 3/9/17)
Then, with every brainstormed aspect ranked, they were put into a concept matrix. The purpose of this was to choose ideas, and make a cohesive design.
Lastly, each option given was modeled on isometric paper and put into several pro and con lists.
To summarize, the most important thing that came out of the brainstorming was the option choice. A layout of the robot led to course strategy decisions, and was, in the end, a very important jumping off point, though the final robot looked almost nothing like G6’s original idea for it. Combined with the other mechanisms and the strategy, it was decided that Option A was the best in terms of drivetrain. The cost effectiveness of the design and the small wheels were deemed more positive than any drawbacks from the inflexibility of the PVC.
As for the drivetrain, analysis led the team to realize that required torque would qualify all motors available. Vex motors were decided to be used because of team experience, and they were less expensive than Igwans.