11-30 Week Progress Report

10 Days Countdown until Design Expo! Our team is making much progress in hopes that our machine will perform well on the competition. It's very exciting to see that our design actually comes out well and has feasible functions. So below is a few updates on the project this past week:

• We made several modifications on the cart. Last week, we spent plenty time trying to lathe the shafts due to different gear and wheel sizes. We got that working now. In addition, we also fixed our Most Critical Module, the scissor linkages, and add the release mechanism to make sure the module can successfully fall down and perform its task of blocking. Please see below for the product pictures.

• For the offense mechanism, we made a very flexible decision and decided to go with a very simple mechanical arm. It's an arm that's attached to a block that connects to the fixed axis. The arm has a rotary motion, and it picks up balls and swings them to the other side. Again, please see below for pictures.

• One of the major problems during manufacturing was figuring out lathe. We spent a lot of time threading the rod that goes into the block for the arm. We've attached a CAD copy, and that's a pretty nice representation of what we have.

• On a side note, in order to protect the arm/arena slot, as well as creating traction on the mechanical arm, we taped the arm with red wire tape. Kyle, being the big Red Wing fan that he is, is very pleased with the product. And later on, we will also logo it with superman block! ;)

Excitement ensures as the clock ticks away!