Overview
This design was the simplest; because of that, it did not change much. It was decided that the plate of the chassis would serve as the plate that hit the button. Not only would this require less precision and perfection in the code, but in the building process as well. The button press was the first performance test, and even with flaws in the chassis, G6 was able to successfully press the button.
Issues Encountered
The first chassis was constructed out of PVC and many issues arose because of this. The PVC was difficult to drill into, forcing the first prototype to be hot glued together. The inability to drill into the PVC could have possibly been a faulty drill or bit; we later drilled into PVC with more success. At the time, however, there was not much time before the first performance test so the prototype was hot glued together. This caused the chassis to be unstable and bow in causing problems driving straight.
Additionally, due to friction problems, a four-wheel drive train was abandoned, and the front wheels were replaced with PVC skids.
Performance Test 1
G6 received all the points on PT1 plus the bonus. Using a navigation strategy of trial and error timing and hope, the team was able to run the robot into the button with first-try success.
Notice how the back of the chassis has a double layer of PVC taped in. This was an attempt to prevent bowing and get the bot to to drive straight.
Moving Forward
The team’s first priority was to fix the issue of the PVC/Hot Glue disaster. Plywood was purchased and cut and the chassis was screwed together to bring about more stability. The dimensions of the sides were kept the same, as the back plate did have success hitting the button. After PT1, the team focused on developing the arm for Developing the Lever Push.
Here is the final wall design for the button press.