TEAMS Tanked Ram-Rod Gooodavich MULTIMEDIA RESULTS HOME   TEAM MEMBERS Brian Clarke: I was the most inexperienced team member in my group. I had no history of previous technological knowledge whatsoever. However, I learned a lot about different types of tools and processing materials while building the Sumo robot. These skills include using a drill press, an oxy-acetylene torch, and an arc-welder. Stephen Foster-Weed: My machinist experience was zero before starting this project. I was raised by a carpenter and my prior skills are with wood. Working with metal wasn't a far cry from woodworking. They have the same basic principles; if you mess up, you waste materials. Metal tools are a lot more dangerous. You have an added worry that the material you are working on could become a dangerous projectile. I gained carpentry experience by working with my father, ever since I could hold a hammer. I took this knowledge and went to a school located in Ellsworth - Hancock County Technical Center (HCTC). When I was there I was in the carpentry program and learned finishing carpentry. Luke Saindon - I have always done this sort of thing. I made a 5-speed go-cart when I was 13 and several complex kinetic sculptures over the years. Recently, I have been getting into high powered rockets and hybrid motors. I have done some other robotics projects with the VEX system. Most of my experience comes from these projects, along with classes. My dad is also the industrial arts teacher.

. Click image to watch the Tanked trailer... . Tanked- Robot Description ...click to view larger images We decided to build our robot with power and traction as our major goals. By using treads, instead of wheels, we were able to achieve both. The treads run on a full suspension system with four bogies per tread, all independently sprung. Having the suspension gives us better all-terrain ability. The tread can mold to any object that it runs over. To power our drive train we used windshield wiper motors, which are essentially right-angle gear motors. These motors are slow but powerful. The top speed for this type of motor is 64 rpm, which gives our robot a top speed of 0.66 f/s. For our power source we use a 12 volt, 32 amp/hour, gel-cell battery. This battery provides about two hours running time for our Sumo bot. In combination these systems put out 80 pounds of pushing power, combined with 110 pounds of robot. We shaped a plow that covers the entire front end of the robot. It is fully adjustable. The finished robot has the following dimensions: 24” x 22.25” x 13”. Using reversing motors we have achieved a 0 degree turning radius. Learning Experience ...click to view larger images Making our Sumo bot has been a great learning experience. Luke, Steve, and I came up with the team name "Tanked". We learned about soldering and wiring. Mr. Simmons was a big help throughout the learning process. He taught us to place the iron on the wire that needs to be soldered and to rub the soldering iron gently against the wire and the iron. We learned to use a drill press to drill holes in various objects. One of the most interesting things we learned was arc-welding - that you're nearly blind when you're using the arc-welder. Our team arc-welded when we weren't busy creating the plow for our Sumo robot. Steve and I worked with the engine lathe to make the wheels for our Sumo robot. The engine lathe was a great machine to create various components for our Sumo robot. We also learned how to thread - with a tap and die set we threaded our round iron pieces to help create the outside design and frame of our robot. Overall, the learning experience was fun, entertaining, educational, and exciting. Lessons Learned ...click to view larger images We learned that alignment is everything. If two holes are not perfectly lined up, and you want a shaft to rotate easily, you must either bend the surrounding material to get them to line up, grind and re-weld, or ream the holes out. We also learned to make sure all material are square before you weld. Small inaccuracies in material preperation makes getting the whole deal square and true really difficult. Finally, duck tape the track seams, otherwise the thread get abraded! Design: ...click to view larger images For our robot the team decided on a tank-tread design. It gave us excellent traction and power, but it was so much harder to build. We also added a suspension system to our design, which made it more complicated. We created two wheel types; large main-wheels and smaller guide-wheels. The main guide wheels, which we have four of in total, where not suspended and these are the primary wheels for moving. The smaller wheels, which we have eight of, were suspended and are used to guide the tread as it goes under our tank. With a total of twelve wheels to machine, the engine lathe was our best friend for a long time. In the end, we used the Drill Press, Angle Grinder, Arc-Welder and many more tools to create our Sumo robot. Reflection ...click to view larger images Added at end of project.