[Design]

Mechanical- Strengths of the robot include:
4-wheel crab (primary drive system),
Tank drive (secondary drive system),
360° manuberability
Average speed of 7 (ft/sec)
2-hooks will be able to grab two separate goals placed 90° to each other

4-wheel crab drive: 2 motors in the crab system will turn, in unison, when two crab wheels are needed to rotate.

Tank drive: Also known as: Auxiliary drive, Chiaphua, or better known as the "Chalupa" drive.

The tank drive allows us to drive straight, it also gives us more traction and torque, and it is used to stabilize the robot.

The tank drive uses 2 chiapula motors with an extremely large gear ratio. This gives us a lot of power to drive opponents to our mercy. There are 3 gear reduction stages total. When in this mode, the robot is not too vulnerable to force from other opponents.

One way to test the strength of the tank drive is by having a person stand on the base of the robot! Very few teams have the stamina and strength that our robot has. The Rubber wheels that we are planing on using, will provide more traction.

Some of the weaknesses include being overweight:

The robot weighs over 130 lbs., so some parts may be needed to be cut because the weight limit is 130 lbs. One way to solve this is by using aluminum for the frame of the robot. The time frame to build prototype was about 3 ½ weeks. The chains found on the base of the robot are used to synchronize the wheel alignment. The frame was built first, then the gears for the crab drive, and then the rest of the robot (i.e. electrical). We learned the different parts of the robot, its weaknesses, what parts needed to be changed, and its endurance. We thought this was the best design to pick up balls. The robot was based on concepts from previous robots, mainly from the 2000 robot because it was pretty successful thus using the idea of a conveyor belt (the Accumulator).

The conveyor belt grabs the soccer balls by spinning upwards. One extra accessory will be a "Turbo" mode, which allows the robot to receive an extra boost of speed.

Software-The software provides a link between the human player and the electrical to customize the controls.

Software handles precise actions that human player can't do and complicated tasks too complicated for the human driver.

The software is able to monitor the status on the motor so as to not overheat. It also coordinates, customizes on acceleration and braking (smoothness), and uses reverse/conceptual driving. There are safety checks performed about 100 times a second that test every part of the robot, one part at time. Software focuses more on the drive system and reuses previous ideas, but there are advances in something every year. There exists only one program to control the robot, so there will be as little change as possible. If there is any malfunction whatsoever with the robot, there are special commands to shut down the robot or else it will break. The software interfaces with the robot by PWMs on the black box are used to send a signal when it is plugged in. There is an equation used to control the speeds of the wheels.

A special sensor (Potentiometer (Pot for short)) is used to sense the angle of the wheels. There is one Pot located on top of each wheel unit. There are two modes in which the robot can drive in: Crab mode and Quad mode. In Crab mode, the turns are always parallel; however, in Quad mode, the turns are complimentary turns (such as those of a car). These two modes provide an excellent combination. Globe motors control the turning. Drill motors are the more powerful motors in the front wheels. Fisher Price motors are the less powerful motors in the back wheels.

The software will need to find a way to "talk" with the circuit board. Software will also have to figure out ways of using extra memory, both the scratchpad ram and extra banks of memory for program space. Three banks are currently being used. The Seat motor is what deploys the auxiliary tank. Because the tank is slow, it will be only 3 inches off of the ground. For the controls, the left joystick controls the crab mode, and the tight joystick controls the quad mode. There will be a motor for the accumulator, conveyor belt, and shooter. In order to take advantage of all of these wonderful qualities, the drivers will be trained better. Electrical- This is the first year the there is flexibility on the circuit board. We can know what the current on the motor is. Electrical can also monitor the circuit breakers and motors (so as to not overheat). The current will be translated into analog. We will keep the electronics unexposed so as to not bring any harm or damage from opponents.

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