The GOAL:
In my Interdisciplinary Design and Manufacturing class, we got the opportunity to design a robot to score various foam balls in a competitive arena. My group and I decided on a design that would be heavily focused on speed, ease of building, and something easy to drive for everyone. I modeled and printed the end of the arm tool to grab the game pieces with the zip ties and rubber bands with a vertical storage system, then reversed the motors when in position to score.
Our PERFORMANCE:
A lot of other teams ended up going for a very complex design, a slow but accurate offensive tooling, or a horizontal storage system. These were all things I tried to avoid because I had already seen mistakes made with these choices in my high school robotics days. Luckily, I must have paid attention to the right things because we only lost once during the entire year. We won the class and school-wide competitions!
