SRC 2012 and other prototypes

The STEM Robotics Competition of 2012 was great fun! We had students from elementary, middle and high school competing in 2 different levels of robotics competition. Some of our LHS Level 1 & Level 2 bots, run by the Propellar board:

Our students also made the animatronic wolf for the TSA competition. It moves his head side to side, shakes paws, and has pneumatic rear legs for standing up.

Our senior design students did a number of different projects, one of which was a motorized window, usful for the handicapped home owner.

To demo our prototyping machine to the freshman CAD class this year, I used a lightsaber STL file at 0.35 scale and another 4 of them at 0.10 scale, seen here with a referral and a LEGO clone trooper.  They still have to go into a 4 hour chemical bath that will eliminate the supprt (black) plastic to expose the final white ABS plastic.

Design & Prototype This!!!!

So, the senior design students have a project to allow a person to have sunglasses that move off to the side on a slide system. They got me the file to prototype it, and now it's time to remove the support plastic BUT the small parts get lost in the heated base bath. So, I had the students design a strainer locking system to hold the small parts (reusable!)


The other parts of the glasses system:


And the custom PROPELLAR circuit boards communicating through an XBEE. These boards (1 on the robot, one on the human) use the 9600 Baud rate of a common PS2 controller to make your robot do your bidding!

Here is the strainer put together (Death Star-ish) and an adapter to go from a window motor to a robot arm for the robotics students.

NXTs and Sensor Work

So the end of the first semester brings the T-BOTs and the NXT Complex Sensor Machines. The 2011-2012 NXT projects ranged in skill and some had good design, build and most importantly, autonomous functionality. Here is gallery. Enjoy.

working.............................. pictures and 2012 PROP circuit boards coming soon!

Velociraptor- gaurds area and is double speed active in the dark; can chomp on things w/ powered jaw

Gaurd Terminator Tank Bot- attacks things of the color RED and uses 2 controllers w/ communicaiton; also avoids walls

Portal Turret Bot - check this video clip for how real this model prototype was. The students were focused on the motions and sounds being close to the actual game.

:VIDEO:

Motorcycle Anti-Collision Bot - Drives around and avoid objects/ turns around w/ front steering


Here is a preview of 2012 STEM Robotics Competition student made (from scratch) circuit board: Powered by PROPELLAR, improved heat sinks and airflow (fan), RELAY available for the pneumatix.... this thing is going to power some nice 18lb. to 118lb. machines!

Quick Pix

VBRC 2011 1st place winners

VBRC 2011 2nd place winners


CAD Prototyped Projects - F35, Terminator Hand, & Robbie the Robot

Next Robotics After School = Tuesday, Nov. 29

Welcome to the 2011-2012 school year. There are plenty of ideas and energies around the labs. Eagles are going full throttle!!!

UPDATE: Our first robotics meeting has been changed to Oct. 6 after school. The topics will surround the 2011-2012 competitions, various materials, and possible teams. See you then!

VBRC 2011 update

The electronics and robotics students did an OUTSTANDING job this year. The competition was fierce, and the students helped each other in the pits all day, making it very collaborative (gracious professionalism). These are a few of the pix we had from the day.

The students had to stay at the start zone and guide their robot to the 'shack' to open the door, retrieve the dangerous biohazard objects, return them to the drop zone, and then go rescue the soldier hostage. Different strategies were used, and different successes were met with just as many faults, to be modified and fixed by the next round of course!

Some robots had an onboard camera, but most just used the camera that was mounted above the shack.

At the end of the day, our students earned 1st, 2nd ,3rd, 4th and 5th in the Level 2 VBRC 2011 Competition! We also had an electronics student team get 1st in the Level 1 VBRC 2011 Competition (basketball style w/ smaller bots)! Way to go Eagles!!!!

VBRC 2011 - Drivetrain Systems

So here are this year's students' drivetrain systems for the solution of the "dispose of the radioactive devices and rescue the soldier" event, a.k.a. VBRC 2011. This year's event has 3 obstacles: sand pit, gravel pit, and a "mountainous" region (not designed/ defined by instructors yet). To get over the 3 obstacles, some students went with a flexible drive systems so the robot could handle the angles of the terrain of obstacle 3 (it will cover 75% of the width of the track, so you have to go over it).

A robot starts at one end and goes down a 35' track, through the 3 obstacles, and into the shack where our soldier is being held hostage. First dispose of the radioactive items and take them to the drop-zone, then come back for the soldier. The shack has live video back to a TV where the human operator is standing. Our school's robots will also have wireless cameras on most of them so the students can get a clear picture of the action on their laptops, also set up next to the human operator near the beginning.

Some have flexible drivetrains, some have 6 wheels, & some have tank treads. Continuous rotation servos and 12V DC motors are used for movement.

Some have anti-rollover systems & independent suspensions.

And remember kids:

Next post, manipulators and end effectors!