Living in the Machine Shop

It seems like the perfect time to write a quick update. We’re entering the third week of the term and things are well on their way. We’ve spent the past few weeks chugging along in the machine shop and the robot is finally coming together. Eric took a photograph of a single half of the chassis attached to the welding fixture. With the welding fixtures done, our hope is to complete the welding at some point this week with the assistance of Inky down in Facility Operations and Management.

We’ve also made progress on the logistics front and have located at least one company that is willing to anodize the pieces of our robot. The plan is to anodize the aluminum chassis with a black hard-coat impregnated with Teflon, which will provide the chassis with additional strength and make it look downright sweet. In the words of the technical engineer at the metal treatment company, if the entire robot were to disintegrate, the Teflon shell would still be standing.

On the electronics front, we’ve also had major progress. Kevin got the computer up and running yesterday and was able to take input from a button and turn on an LED when the button was pressed. We also finally have the correct cables for the GPS radio and are currently working on the communication between the computer and the GPS radio.

After a brief scare with the motors and the motor controllers, we now have the motors up and running with the UltraLife batteries. The gearboxes were also finished by Neugart and are currently in the mail on their way to Dartmouth. Once we have the gearboxes, we can finish the keyhole cuts in the hub components and begin fitting everything together for the final assembly of the robot.