EJ's Product Design Portfolio
EJ's Product Design Portfolio
BallCollCover.png

Remote Controlled Ball Collector

How do you design a robot within material constraints to compete in a ball game?

Project Overview

Problem:

In my machine engineering class, we were challenged to design and build a remote controlled vehicle capable of picking up different size balls (varying from ping pong balls to soft balls, to a soccer ball, with the larger balls worth more points) and placing them into a tube (one tall and skinny worth 2x points, and one short and fat worth 1x points). All groups were limited to a set parts list containing a limited number of motors and materials.

Solution:

My team of four designed our vehicle to maximize the point values that we could score by being able to pick up all types of balls except the soccer ball. We strived to place all balls in the tall tube, except for placing ping pong balls in the short tube so that they would not take up space in the tall tube. While we aimed to maintain simple and reliable mechanisms, our team’s approach to the problem was ambitious.  We ultimately accomplished what we set out to do. Our group was the only group capable of placing any ball in the top tube. We won the competition and received a citation for academic excellence in the class. I was responsible for the collection mechanism, and designed a very simple and reliable rack and pinion assembly to accomplish this. As the team leader, I also controlled the robot in the competition, and was a large contributor to the design and manufacturing of the other subsystems.

 

Design Process

 

Sketches

Sketches

To collect balls, a servomotor drives a rack and pinion to open and close an L-shaped arm. After brainstorming subassemblies functions as a team, each team member went off and sketched up possible solutions to all of the sub assembles.

"Looks Like" Prototype

"Looks Like" Prototype

As a team we made “looks like” prototypes out of cardboard and foam core to test our ideas before moving into SolidWorks and machining.

SolidWorks Design & Machining

SolidWorks Design & Machining

Once we established the feasibility of the design with our "works like" prototype, we moved forward to create a SolidWorks model. We then machined parts and constructed the final product. 

Final Product

Final Product

The final product included six subassemblies: 

1. Driving Mechanism: We created a two stage gear reduction to drive the robot forward, and used two servomotors connected to omniwheels to steer it.

2.  Collection Mechanism: A rack and pinion joint closes the arms around the balls to collect them. While I was also instrumental in designing the other subassemblies, I was in charge of the final design and machining of the collection subasse

2. Collection Mechanism: A rack and pinion joint closes the arms around the balls to collect them. While I was also instrumental in designing the other subassemblies, I was in charge of the final design and machining of the collection subassembly.

3.  Lifting Mechanism: After collecting the balls, the arms are raised up by a pulley system to dump the balls into the primary collection bin.

3. Lifting Mechanism: After collecting the balls, the arms are raised up by a pulley system to dump the balls into the primary collection bin.

4. Elevator Mechanism: Once the balls are in the primary collection bin, a conveyer belt picks them up and brings them to the top collection bin where the ping pong balls are sorted out in preparation for being dumped into the tubes for points.

4. Elevator Mechanism: Once the balls are in the primary collection bin, a conveyer belt picks them up and brings them to the top collection bin where the ping pong balls are sorted out in preparation for being dumped into the tubes for points.

5. Sorting Mechanism: Immediately after coming off the conveyer belt, the ping pong balls fall through a slot into a lower collection bin so that they aren’t deposited in the tall tube and take up space as they aren’t worth as many points. The lar

5. Sorting Mechanism: Immediately after coming off the conveyer belt, the ping pong balls fall through a slot into a lower collection bin so that they aren’t deposited in the tall tube and take up space as they aren’t worth as many points. The large balls roll down the shoot until they reach the dumping mechanism, where they wait until it is activated.

6. Dumping Mechanism: Once sorted, the balls are dumped into the tubes through a simple spring loaded mechanism. The robot is driven so that the dumping arms are depressed against the tubes causing the balls to be gravity fed into the tubes. There

6. Dumping Mechanism: Once sorted, the balls are dumped into the tubes through a simple spring loaded mechanism. The robot is driven so that the dumping arms are depressed against the tubes causing the balls to be gravity fed into the tubes. There is one dumping arm for the large balls, and one for the ping pong balls, which dumps into the short tube which is worth less points.