2016 Shooter

Our shooter located in the center of the robot’s frame assists with ball manipulation. It uses fastly spinning wheels to fire the ball out. The shooter is capable of shooting high goals and firing into the intake for a low goal. The shooter is also able to rotate for aiming while shooting a high goal and even point backwards for ease of autonomous programming. This rotation is actuated by a BAG motor connected to a 100:1 Versaplanetary.

As we found in prototyping that boulder compressibility was highly variable, we designed our shooter with adjustable compression in mind. Our shooter has a set bolts which can line up with any of eight holes on the shooter frame. This forms 8 levels of compression that we can adjust to. With further testing, we were able to find the optimum level of compression.

On first test of the newly assembled shooter, the boulder was not propelled very far. To solve this we added 2” diameter steel flywheels on the axles of the shooter’s wheels to store up momentum. This modification was a huge success and enabled the robot to shoot and score high goals. On either side of the shooter’s inside there are two wheels on an axle with the steel flywheel. These axles are spun up using an RS775 and a toothed belt. It takes each set of wheels about 2 seconds so finish accelerating and once at top speed the boulder is able to be fired.

The boulder is stored in the rear of the shooter while the wheels are spinning up or the robot is moving. It stays there until it is ready to be fired. This is done so by pushing the boulder into the spinning wheels by way of two aluminum “flippers” which move the ball out of the shooter’s back. Two pneumatic cylinders are used to actuate them forward and backward.