This week was quite busy!
First things first, I finalized the kinematics scheme for the Rover, with the help of a Roboclub member who knows kinematics better than I do. We figured out that when the user gets to the object, the Rover should rotate til the line that the arm sits on is in line with the object to be picked up. The next step is to use the Y and Z distance from the Rover to manipulate the Robot Arm to pick up the object.
And finally, we got wheels and the arm on the Rover. This is what I wanted to be done by the end of this week, which is great. I plan to add more electronic holders to the Rover, but I really wanted to make sure that we could get the arm mounted to test it. Having the motors mounted as well, we can get the circuits done and test soon.
Progress is looking better. As you know, we are essentially pulling software tasks from the future and doing them now, so we can make up lost time. (Rover Fabrication is definitely taking awhile!) With this, I can finally start testing kinematics appropriately, and we can plan to get the tele-op portion of the Rover working by the midterm demo day. By next week, I hope to have all of the electronics + tele-op working on the Rover, and that is where mine and Hayden’s areas will cross at last.