Goals

In designing the robot's ringer manipulator, we had a few main goals:

Design Process

Some possibilities for grabber design included claw-like devices that would open and close around either one side of the tube, or around the sides of the whole tube. Other possibilities were three-prong grabbers that would close around the outside of the tube, or open on the inside.

The simplest and most effective design we could come up with was a dual conveyor belt system between two fixed grabber plates. The main bonus about this system is that it can also pivot the tubes as well as sucking them in and spitting them out.

Features

• The top side of the grabber features slots that will allow the rollers to slide up if we are working with a tube with a high psi.
• Each roller is powered by a globe motor working on a 5:3 ratio.
• A Skyway pneumatic wheel without the tire functions as the idler roller at the back of the grabber.
• A limit switch prevents the tube from continuing to be pulled in if the tube is already all the way in..
• A Delrin Skid Plate on the bottom prevents the Belting from touching the carpet.
• Ringer Guides (Pictured above) Help to align the tube to the center of the grabber.
• Additional single-roller belts on the outer rollers aid in picking up ringers.
• Each side of the grabber contains 5 rollers made of 1" diameter Delrin. Each roller has five slots, to allow up to five belts to be used if necessary.