This week was midterms week for me, so I was not able to work on our capstone project during the middle of the week. I was, however, able to work some on the project at the beginning and end of the week.
With the mechanical portion of BallBot nearly complete, I started the week by experimenting with a slight modification to our current ball launching mechanism. The goal of this experiment was to determine if angleing the wheels would help launch the balls higher. The higher we can raise the ball, the more balls we can store in our basket towards the back of BallBot. Below are some results from my experiments:
As one can see, angleing the motors lifts the balls off the ground, even in the absence of a ramp.
Towards the end of the week, I worked with the team to attach our basket to the back of BallBot. We wanted the basket to be easily removable, so we settled on a hook design. This design is much like how one would hang a painting on the wall. Below is a picture of the attaching mechanism:
With the basket locked in place, we are ready to do a full integration test on a tennis court. Unfortunately, the Pittsburgh’s weather is not looking great next week, so we’ll have to cross our fingers and take the first opportunity we get.