“Clawdia” – 2019-2020 SKYSTONE Robot

Our robot, “Clawdia”, had a very unique custom designed drivetrain system called Swerve Drive. No other Minnesota FTC team was using this drivetrain on their robot. It had the ability to rotate its wheels, allowing the robot to travel with three degrees of freedom, giving it maneuverability on the field. Over time, we found that Swerve Drive is very complicated and time consuming, and decided as a team that it will become an off-season project. We have since switched to a mecanum drivetrain, because it still gives us the maneuverability we want, without the added complexity. We can easily switch to a different drivetrain, because we used the modular design method. We designed systems (or modules) separately, using our design process, and created them to fit together on our swerve or mecum drivetrains. Our modules include a CAD designed wheeled stone intake system and grabber that pick up stones on the field. The grabber is raised up by an elevator, made up of two drawer slide systems, and moves through the robot on a shuttle, that is a CAD designed rack and pinion. We hope this design limits the travel the robot has on the field to retrieve stones, and quickly delivers them to the foundation. We also have two servo, sprocket and chain driven arms that grab onto and move the foundation in and out of the building site.