Robotic Arm Gripper for FRC Logomotion Competition

Intro: Robotic Arm Gripper for FRC Logomotion Competition

Hi all,
This is the first of a series of instructables.
In order to understand the origin of this instructable please refer to the link below:

This year FRC FIRST robotics competition -Logomition

This instructable will show you how to design, manufacture and assemble a gripper for the inflated tubes in this years competition.

all ready ? ? ? 
lets get started

btw - The age group of this instructable is 13-18 ( the frc contest is for 10th-12th grade students)

STEP 1: Design

For the design we used PTC Pro Engineer CAD softwear (or in its new name - Creo Elements Pro).
Our Concempt:
The concept was a motorized pliers with broad surfaces at the tip in order to prevent the inflated tube from slipping or changing orientation. 

in the photos below you can see a rendered image of the design alongside the actual assembly.
The design was planned to be simple, light weight and cheap (using standard screws, alluminum plates and RHS- Rectangular Hollow Section Alluminum)
Details regarding the different parts are in the following step.

STEP 2: Parts

So you are probably wondering what are the parts needed for this. here they are:

1. Denso Window motor from this years Kit Of Parts 
2.Denso Motor coupler.
3.A motor mounting plates
4. A movement limiting plate
5. Bottom plate asm
6. Top plate asm
7. 2 25mm M6 screws and nuts
8. 120mm M10 screw an nut
9. 2 50 mm M6 screws and nuts
10. A 12v battery
11. RHS spacer
12. 2 M4 screws

Measurements can be determined as you see fit.Some of the manufacturing drafts are added below. 
Manufacturing can be done using a drill and a plate cutter (jigsaw, handsaw, guillotine etc.)

STEP 3: Assembly

Now that we have all the parts we assmble them by following these Instructions: 
1. Connect the motor coupler to the top plate asm using 2 M6 screws.
2. Mount the motor on the motor mounting plate using the 2 M4 screws.
3. Screw the M10 screw on the movement limitong plate.
4. Place the coupler on the motor and place the limiting movement plate from the other side (you get a motor sandwitch)
5. Place the spacer and bottom plate asm inside the sandwitch - fasten the 2 long M6 screws

STEP 4: All Done!

We are all done now!

All that remains is to connect the batttery to the motor and creat the movement as we wish.

Check out the video below to see it in action:

I remind you that this is just the tip. more instructable on this robot are yet to come... stay tuned :) 

Comments

[linuxanon]

How well would you say this will work for this year's game? We're a veteran team but have never attempted an arm before, always been a defense bot. Yet we may do a pneumatic co-axial cannon, just have to see how well it would work against the factor of balls flying off the backboard.

[sitzikbs]

well, i dont think it will work that well because balls have the tendency to roll away. i would try collecting the balls with some sort of rollers...
good luck... that cannon sounds nice.

[pyroboy212]

cool! saw a couple really effective claw designs at the two regionals my team went to. our team decided to use a static roller claw. that way we could manipulate the tube while we hung it.

[sitzikbs]

thanks. we wanted to do a roller gripper but the design and assembly were too complicated so we ended up with this one.
check it out in action :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UOY3P3bgxk

[zazenergy]

Very nice! Looking to your future instructables.

[sitzikbs]

Thanks,
we are now at the FIRST finals here in israel so once we are done with that ill have more time to make some more instructables on this robot...