Robotics

This section is for what I do as a mechanical engineering student in the field of robotics.

Current Robot:

This years robotic challenge is the biggest of all of them so far. Check out DARPA's Grand Challenge here: http://www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge/ and more details on our autonomous vehicle here: http://filebox.vt.edu/eng/mech/dgc/

Past Robots:

Zen

Year: 2001-2002

Zen is one of the robots built last year by the Autonomous Vehicle Team at Virginia Tech. This robot turned out to be pretty disappointing. It wasn't finished at the end of the semester, and the team members who live in the area didn't work on it over the summer. I had agreed to make the body. It was going to be all AL sheet formed with complex curves, fluted, then riveted together. However, since the rest of the team couldn't get the robot assembled and running, I (the only volunteer on the team not doing this for a grade) didn't take the time to finish the body. Oh well. Better luck next time.

AVT site: http://filebox.vt.edu/eng/mech/AVT/

Competition site: http://www.secs.oakland.edu/SECS_prof_orgs/PROF_AUVSI/index.html

Hokie Guard

Year: 2000-2001

My system on this robot was the pneumatic powered arms that extend from the center. They have spring loaded catches so that the arms can grab and hold the goals. On a good day, the servos can release the goals, but that never played a part in our strategy.

More info:

Hokie GUARD website: http://www.iovel.com/cgi-bin/hghtml?new/

Competition website: http://www.usfirst.org/

Vermin the Ermine

Year: 1999-2000

This was my senior year in high school. As captain of the team and head of integration, I didn't work on any one system. The robot was my overall design. To fit within the starting dimensions, Vermin started on its backside, and used a cam to fall over. As the head of the pit, I found more flaws in the design than solutions, but this robot still has a lot of significance for me personally. The picture is from the open house at Goddard Space Flight Center.

Fall Prototype

Year: Fall 1999

During the fall of this year, our team practiced by creating a little competition of our own. The goal was to navigate an RC robot with a cinder block on it out of the shop, down the hallway filled with obstacles to the soda machine and pick up a filled, unopened can from the ground. The robot then had to return the can to the shop. My system for picking up the can was simple. The front was lined with 3" wood screws. We drove into the can and speared it against the wall. The screws (inside their wooden sheath, under the torch in the picture) did a pretty good job of keeping the holes plugged. We only lost a little bit of the drink on the trip back and the can was fairly securely fixed to the front. A number of the original ideas called for a blowtorch in one way or another. The picture shows a quick test of the add on system. We could maneuver over to the can and park in front of it. After a little bit: POW. Can opener. The top of the can opens outwards. Again some of the drink is lost, and it's a bit warm, but we had fun with it. We actually won the competition by default. The other robots were too complex and did not finish in time, whereas we only had the drive system to build. Looking at it now, I wonder if the antenna was the cause of some of our controls response problems. I wrapped it around the steel rod because it was too long. Too bad it looks like an inductor now. I was never as good at the electrical part of robots.

More info:

The Aluminum Weasels website: http://www.team116.org/2000/first.html

Competition website: http://www.usfirst.org/

SECOND

Year: 1998-1999

This was where I got involved with robotics. This is my first robot. I designed and built the arm. The arm was designed to extend and hook onto a pipe on an octagonal wheeled platform. The robot could then maneuver the platform, or pull back enough to lift the robot off of the ground. It was a simple and powerful design, using surgical tubing to spring load arm, and a motor from a car seat with the rack and pinion assembly. I'll see about getting a picture, the old web page vanished.

More info:

Robo Hoboes website: (Current team) http://www.team116.org/2002/

Competition website: http://www.usfirst.org/