Robo-LabTeam 5

Derek Evers, James Bettes, Keith Pearson, Amanda Brown, and Bryce Bell

Our First Design•Tracks provided to much drag to be able to make a turn correctly

•Took to much power than the motors provided

•Required belt drive which often slipped and broke

•The design that we were trying to make work was to complicated for our needs.

Steering Issues•Steering system would get stuck in a sharp turns with our swivel design.

•Needed to be centered perfectly which proved to be difficult with the Lego setup.

•Could not get the setup to be perfectly level which made steering get stuck.

•Every steering system tried proved to be too complicated to be practical.

•Drag wheel proved to be easiest and most effective and was eventually replaced with a skid plate.

Drive train•Started out with direct drive which gave too little power in the turns or too much speed and would overshoot the line.

•Belt drive caused problems with the belts slipping and coming off.

•Gear drive proved to be the most practical and efficient with power and gave the car the right amount of torque as well as the right amount of speed not to over shoot the turns.

Light Sensors •The light sensors started out very far apart which caused our car to have late corrections which made the car over shoot the lines.

•Second the light sensors were very close together which caused the car try to make too many corrections and caused the car to quit moving.

•Putting the sensors about two inches apart gave the car the perfect amount of time to turn, but was still able to turn correctly.

Battery Problem•When the batteries were weak the car moved sluggish and responded differently to the turns in the line.

•When the batteries were new the car moved much faster and would cause the car to overshoot the line because the program was made with the old batteries.

Programming• The program we ran the course with.

• This program was made to be too sensitive and would pickup the shadows on the floor.

• It also did not have a good turn speed to make the right angle turns.

Programming• After running the course we realized a few things needed

to be changed.

• Turn speed was increased and light sensitivity was decreased. This allowed it to run the course fine after the competition.