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Designing this robot is the most exciting part of this project. All of us are in Longhorn Racing, which means we have a lot of simulation and design implementation background. We all work in very mechanism-heavy subsystems (steering, suspension, and engine development) as well, so this project is an exciting opportunity for us to work on systems that feel very familiar. The most challenging aspect of this project would be the manufacturing of all the components. Since there are a lot of coupled mechanisms, there are a lot of opportunities for the mechanism to bind if the right tolerances are not properly achieved. Especially since we do not own the equipment ourselves (3D printers, laser cutters), we are not able to tune or precisely estimate the tolerances of our prototyped products.
Preliminary Design Ideas PRELIMINARY DESIGN IDEAS
Pictured below is the proposed design idea for the loading mechanism [Fig. 3]. The upper crossbar (pictured in green) is constrained via an axle to the walls of the outer housing but allowed to rotate concentric to that axle. The outer bracket mechanism (pictured in blue) that dictates the path of the end effector is driven by a crank-slider input coupled to the stamping mechanism camshaft. The lower part of the manipulator mechanism (pictured in red) contains the two binary links that control the opening and closing of the end effector. This lower part is allowed to slide freely vertically through the upper crossbar via a linear bearing.
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