Final Team Blog

We decided to name our machine Squishy so any referral to our machine will be as Squishy. The only thing we have changed this week is the appearance, we added glitter to the top of Squishy, stickers to the sides, and each of us decorated a vertical post with our name on it.

We also made our video this week. It included videos and pictures of us making Squishy in the 250 shop and the machine shop.

Squishy's final operations were: the leadscrew moved the scissor arm across the scissor arm base as we designed it, the pulley helped the leadscrew pull the hopper back up, the hopper picked up the balls, the wheels moved the cart forward. Our initial plan was to pick up the heavy balls, but after testing, that was not possible. The hopper could not get past the first round of balls, so we started the hopper closer to the halfway point to use the defense of blocking part of our slot while still trying to pick up the balls there. We also had to change our original idea from driving the cart around the arena to driving "straight" forward since our wheels would not turn the cart sharp enough to make the movements necessary.

When we ran Squishy, we started the hopper in the arena with the hopper a couple inches into the slot. We had to position the cart very carefully so that the scissor arms were vertical. Once the competition started, we pushed down on the first row of balls using the leadscrew. After we made contact with the balls, we wiggled the cart back and forth to get the balls to line up in the hopper as best we could. We continued to push down on the balls until they were high enough in the hopper that the springs released. This would generally take most of our time so after the first row of balls, we would use the leadscrew and pulley to pull the hopper back up and drive the cart to the other side.

Significant changes we made along the way:
~added a pulley to help the leadscrew pick up the hopper
~added the side bar after the pulley to keep the hopper from hitting the wheels
~changed all the gear ratios to higher than initial settings
~added string to the spring flaps at the bottom of the hopper
~decided to thread the hopper
~added notches in scissor arm base so the caps would fit
~made L pieces to attach the vertical supports to the cart and horizontal base

Good decisions we made:
~Being different - no scooping arm
~Buying the caps for the scissor arms - not using eclips/ turning notches for them
~Starting early - consistently working in the morning
~Using the laser cutter when possible
~DECORATING SQUISHY!!!