S.P.D.C. Part Two: Mars Rocks Robot

Do you remember the S.P.D.C. Post I did recently? Greg was on two design teams: The R.C. Baja Car (I showed in the first post) and the Mars Rocks Robot. He solid modeled both projects completely on his computer. Then he gave the files to the guys in the shop and they cut the parts out for him. Then he and another guy put it all together to make the robot.

So this is the robot! They named it "The Claw." The idea was to build a robot that someone could send into space and set it on mars. Then it would need to move around, crawl over obstacles, pick up rocks and carry them back to deposit them in a certain place.


Notice the claw that is out flat in front of the robot (above picture). It picks up rocks by opening up very wide, then drawing in the rock as it closes. This is helpful because you don't have to be perfectly positioned in front of the rock to grab it. Once you grab the rock, the claw lifts up and moves backwards, then drops the rock over the hopper in the middle section. (The hopper looks like a little cage) The hopper holds the rocks while the robot crawls over obstacles and makes it's way back to the target.


The whole thing was designed perfectly. Greg and his buddy tested the robot on a course they built and were able to complete the whole thing in about 2 minutes. They had four controls, and they each were in charge of two. One person had two controls to drive the robot around, and the other person had two controls to operate the claw. The day before the competition Greg found out that you can only use one driver. He stayed up all night (literally all night) working on the robot to re-wire and fix it up to use only two controls so he could drive the robot by himself. He came home at 7am to take a shower and say hi and went back to being in charge of everything at the conference.


So the big moment came and it was Greg's turn with the robot. It was nerve wracking as we all waited for the robot and the controls to sync (it was wireless controls). Everybody stood around and kind of giggled as Greg sat in the spotlight waiting for his robot to go. Finally the claw twitched, and they started the time! He pressed forward full throttle, then started to turn and that's when it was all over. The carpet was a twist that nobody thought of and it cause the tank tracks to come right off the robot.


The driver is not allowed to touch the robot for this competition, so it was pretty much over as soon as it started. Greg was able to drive the robot around a little, and by crashing into the side of the barrier cause the robot to turn enough to get to one rock. He picked up the first rock and put it in the hopper, but since he couldn't turn any more to put the rock on the target he just went back and put it back in it's place. At least he could show how the robot should have worked.


Seven schools came to compete. Only three robots were able to function on the carpet without loosing their tracks. Oddly every school thought to use tank tracks instead of wheels. When it was all over the course was open for people to play around with their robots. Greg was able to collect all the rocks and put them all exactly in the middle of the target since he could save the robot and put the tracks back on. Another robot came on the course too and everybody laughed at the mini battle bots combat. Greg tried to attack the other robot with the claw and pull it's wires out, and the other robot drove over the top of Greg's.