MAE 3 Introduction to Engineering Graphics and Design

For the capstone project of my freshman year, I worked in a group to design and manufacture a robot capable of competing in a student 1v1 bracket playing the game created by the professors.

My focus was on developing our intake mechanism. Following the engineering design process the intake evolved into a claw actuated by two four-bar linkages. The design was frankly overkill, but I wanted to design something I had never worked on before, and settled on the four-bar linkage as a mechanism that perfectly suited our needs.

Having two motors, as originally designed, resulted in the claw being slightly heavier than the towering arm could raise, and provided over 30× the force that was needed. To compensate, an internal gear set was added to drive both linkages from one motor.