Launching Mechanism

Layers of Launching Mechanism on Solidworks
Each slide has two sets of the image above. Piece on top is the outer slide with two holes for a servo mount. Second piece is the part that will cradle balls to be launched. Two small pieces below are spacers.

Orthographic Drawing of Sphere Slide

Early launcher prototype model

Solidworks Model of Servo mount measured to exact specifications.

Close up image of launcher from the side at 30 degrees.

Chassis

We went for a differential drive for our chassis for speedier turning. Our robot had 3 floors. The first floor contained the batteries, motors and light sensors. The reasoning for this was generally after initial setup, we won't be moving these items around much. That's why these are all at the bottom floor because it takes time to remove the upper floors and it might damage something if we were to repeatedly move things around. The second floor contained all the electronics. We changed the wiring a lot during the prototyping phase. The top floor contained the launcher and the servos releasing the balls. This had to be on top for easy reloading during the competition.

Light Sensor Mount

This attached to the bottom of the chassis. We mounted one light sensor on the right side of the bot to identify when it needed to turn. In front, we had three light sensors. This method helped us make sure that we were always on the line and our robot did this surprisingly well. I think 3 light sensors is optimal for light sensing because your bot just has to make sure the middle is always on the black line while the other two sensors tell it whether it should increase left or right wheel speed.