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Second and third competition day round up

The second day of the competition was our worst day so far. Multiple problems were discovered in the control electronics for the arm. The control boards we were using struggled to supply the power to the shoulder joint which has the entire weight of the arm on it. After dissasembling the robot and checking the control boards in the electronics stack it was immediately clear that our lower-powered control boards for the arm were broken. A large black mark stained the middle of the board - it was clear we had burnt it out.

A second, more powerful control board needed to be placed within the electronic stack. This required a complete disassembly and reassembly of the stack and the drilling of new holes to mount the board. We decided that the third day would be spent taking these required steps to get our arm working.

It was also decided that the autonomous robot, yet to score any points autonomously, should be driven by a teleoperator in an attempt to score points while the teleoperated robot was out of action. The first run we tried didn't go too well as our connection to the robot repeatedly dropped and the code controlling the motor action seemed to fail frequently and resetting it was a long process. By the end of the day these issues had been fixed (read: bodged) and we were able to drive the autonomous robot in the "best in class" challenge for mobiltiy.

The autonomous robot successfully made it up and down the 45 degree ramp 9 times and also could go down the rolling tube step with relative ease. We attempted the stairs and managed the first one but decided it was too difficult to proceed any further.

Meanwhile, we discovered that even with the increased power to the lower arm joint, it was still simply not providing the torque we needed to lift the arm. In the process of testing the motor brushes may have been burnt and we cannot be certain until we strip the motor apart. Even then, it is impossible to fix at the competition so, as it stands, we have one less joint on the arm.

The fourth day will be spent getting the other joints working so we have a (semi) working arm that may be able to attempt the manipulation challenge.

Sun 03 Apr 2011, 09:09