During March Break after the past couple of weeks, HNMCS Robotics has been busy tweaking our 2023 robot, “Lightning Queen ” and preparing for the McMaster Event the first weekend of April. Mechanically we have geared down our intake arm to easily manipulate cones in addition to cubes. We also replaced the belt drive with a chain drive. In software, we’ve added features to reduce the need for human reaction and fine-tuned our autonomous routine. We used the position sensor of the FalconFX motor to speed up the manual drive of the arm. We have also added position control with cruise velocity and acceleration limits using PID (proportional, integral derivative feedback loop) to reduce the need for operator manipulation and increase speed and accuracy. With one button the arm will go to the target position to intake from the human position, to drop off at the mid-level or to tuck in safely in the robot’s frame. We have been pleased with the success of our hybrid node delivery during autonomous and now we have updated the routine to successfully clear the cable protector.
HNMCS Robotics Team 7659 