Our initial concept of a telescoping arm lifted by a winch remained our concept throughout the semester. Ideas that came later were using a 20 lb steel plate as our main body to anchor the machine in place, using the winch to pull not only the arm but also the release pin to let our inner arm telescope out, and putting flaps on our base plate to reach into the slot to keep the machine from moving side to side. Another great addition was our car that we added late into the semester. The car was very basic, consisting of our double gear box direct driving two small wheels and a wheel in back for some reduction in friction. Though the car did nothing to score and was the lightest and possibly least powerful vehicle in the competition, it got in the way of the other cars and prevented them from scoring. During our quarterfinal and semifinal rounds, our car was able to stall the other cars long enough to keep them from scoring until it was too late.
Our designs changed constantly throughout the semester as we learned the limitations of springs, pvc pipe, and the shop tools. Our final design consisted of a winch (planetary gear box at 400:1) and a telescoping arm mounted on a base plate that had flaps to secure it to the slot. The winch was attached to the end of our inner arm using braided fishing line.
Our machine never broke in any way, never got scored on, and scored an average amount of 288.2 grams (compared to our opponent’s average score of 170.6 grams). We found it interesting that though the cars with arms designs were seeded relatively higher than mounted arms, the finalists from each bracket each had mounted arms and had auxiliary vehicles to disrupt other cars. Cars have a high scoring potential when unopposed. In a head to head competition, the cars couldn’t score against each other well because they both drove along the same path and interfered with each other, while mounted arms did not have this problem.
Results
Awards: Strongest Machine (Murphy's Law)
First Round Murphy's Law(289) Vs. DaFever(152)
Photo Courtesy of AnnArbor.com
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/36693965@N04/4174519063/in/set-72157622851153057/)
Second Round Murphy's Law(289) Vs. Team Rocket(177)
Quarter Finals Murphy's Law(277) Vs. Ping Pong Predators(180)
Photo Courtesy of http://me250-f09.blogspot.com/
Semi-Finals Murphy's Law(289) Vs. Sei Jin's Army(171)
Finals Murphy's Law(297) Vs. Team Legend(173)
Slot-Bot Champions: Murphy's Law
Thanks to Professor Hart and the GSI for a fun Slot Bot Competition.
Photo Courtesy of http://me250-f09.blogspot.com/
Final Version of BOM (12/11/09)
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