Rules for the playoff were: 90 seconds to set up and fire one shot into a reduced size hole 60 points for a swish 50 points for hitting the edge and in 30 points for bouncing off the top
We tried to adjust backward for a swish by looking at the videos of the first run. Unfortunately, I should have videoed it from the side. We didn't know it would be important later! One team swished, another lipped and in, we bounced off. So first and second were set. Jocelyn accosted the director to make sure there would be a runoff for third against the two other teams that bounced the top.
Our team want on Friday To JPL for the finals. Here's video our first round, three successful shots putting us in a five way tie for first out of thirty teams!
We competed at Manual Arts High School against 54 other teams last Saturday. Not a great showing compared to all of our practice sessions, sinking one and two off the lip for a score of 110. Held on to second place through the first 16 or so teams. Went to lunch at Fillipe's for some amazing French dip sammiches, then came back to find we were out of the trophy race, but found out later that we were going to the finals anyway. Between the two venues, there were only 6 teams with scores higher than us, but several like us at 110 points.
In practice before our time slot, we hit 8 for 8, then moved to the competition area, which was sloped in two directions! I do not think that was the killer, though. Our trigger mechanism, if you can call pulling a loop off of a hook a mechanism, has a bit of sensitivity to technique. That's something we will fix this weekend for the finals on the 9th of December.
My team is great! Hats off to the gang and our fearless physics teacher leader, Jarrod Bradley!
A small group at San Marcos High is doing the JPL challenge; a machine that kicks a football into a trashcan 5m away, over a 2m barrier. I am enjoying advising the students on the project!
I find it very helpful to do little tests like this, so that if we were to calculate the metrics of this motion, we will have a real life verification of our math model, or point out where it is deficient.
This was a good shot, maybe a little low, but just about dead on the 5m distance. Students can make measurements from this video for angle of inclination (look to the bookshelf in the background for a vertical line reference), and determine acceleration of the ball and the velocity of Mr. Bradley's fist at impact. The video is shot at 300 frames per second, so check what frame rate your computer is playing, divide 300 by the frame rate to get the time factor.
The polar CNC is getting closer to full production ready. Our customer is making their own enclosures and HMI panel, so we have that to create that as well for our metal cutting version. I think that before I put this out there as a full cnc, I'll want to have a solid spindle and some sort of tool changer available. Lots to do, so it's good to be a subsystem for now. Mike
This is a set of ServoBelt stages stacked to be an XY for a semiconductor application. This video is just a burn-in move. The critical move of 12mm can be done in 180msec, settled to 5um. Payload is 34 lb. Motors are Teknic NEMA34 4-stack on the bottom and NEMA23 4-stack on the top, with Teknic Eclipse 350R amplifiers, and Renishaw RGH41 linear encoders.
This is our mini polar desktop CNC cutting a tooth cap from zirconia at 300 frames per second slow motion. Control is Delta Tau Clipper, amplifiers are Teknic Eclipse. Feed rate is 4m/min
I'm a former aerospace designer and all around technical geek. My interests include robotics, propulsion and precision clockwork. My business is designing and manufacturing industrial robotics.
If you have been given a link to a specific post, be sure to click the "mike's tech corner" to see more posts. Feel free to comment on my work.
I'm a former aerospace designer and all around technical geek. My interests include robotics, propulsion and precision clockwork. My business is designing and manufacturing industrial robotics.
