Design Tips

Navigational Aids for the Journey of Creation

Designing Robust Robots Requires:

Logic

Process

Productive Originality Defining why ideas do or do not make sense

Thinking, visualizing, building and testing. Trading on the currency of being focused and working hard.

Creative success comes frommaking a commitment and making It work!

DesirePassion gets you through the hard parts of journey

The Great 8

Select the Best Ideas

Visualize the Ideas

Understand the Problem

Develop Ideas

Evaluate

Build and Test

Create Drawings

Integrate

Mix and Match the Steps, but Understand the Problem

Reduce Risk Factors

Time

The Duplicator

The Adaptive Designer

The Innovator

Risk Comparison with Respect to Knowledge and Time

The 5 Budgets Rule the Design Process

Time Budgets

Weight Budgets

There is never enough so use it wisely. Make GANNT CHARTS

You can’t do everything. Make smart choices about what your robot will do and how it will do it.

Money BudgetsNuff said.

Knowledge BudgetsAt the start of the project cycle, trade some Time for Knowledge. Work within your knowledge budget.What you don’t know can and will hurt you!

Power BudgetsBig motors, high speed and torturous torque curves need big batteries. Big batteries impinge on weight budgets. Honor the run time constraints! Analyze your battery and motor combinations

The 5 Budgets Rule the Design Process

Understand the

Problem

It’s the game…..smarty!

KNOW THE RULES!

Know the GAME

Talk about the game….a lot.

BotBall

FIRSTTrinity Fire

FightingBattleBots

IQTexas Best

And the Rules that Govern the Play

Ask Essential Questions About the Game.

How can the game be won?

How can the game be lost?

These are good starter questions.There are thousands more

How long is a game?

How fast do I have to move to score?

Brainstorming is About Developing

Ideas

Develop and Share Ideas

Lots of Ideas

Write Statements About the ‘Bot

Write 100 things about the robot, write them, write them on a plane, write them, write them

on a train, write them, write them until you go insane!

Copy them in your design notebook

Create Specifications

Maneuverable

Fast

4 Wheel Drive

Use Pneumatics to Lift Opponents

Differential Steering

What does your machine have to do to play?

Clearly describe what your robot will do and be

Know WHAT your Robot will do

Know HOW your Robot will do it.

Before You Build

Recognize design trade-offsTime/Money/Knowledge/Power/Weight

Anticipate problemsStudy Mechanisms and Materials

Build and Test Assemblies

What comes first.

What comes before How

These are not questions

Ask Essential Questions About the Stuff You Need

to Build a ‘Bot.

How do I make wheels and axles move?

How much power can the motors produce?

Think of a few hundred more.

Visualize the Prize

Use CAD Skills to Parallel the Prototyping Process

Make Sketches of the Ideas

Combine and Analyze the Ideas

Develop Multiple Solutions

Play the solutions against each other using “What if”

scenarios

Search for the best solution, then make it better

Build Test and Evaluate

Build a Drive Train and Test ItBuild things that work, and work and work

Make a Controllable PlatformPut 100 lbs on it

Test and Evaluate the Sub-AssembliesMake modifications and changes

Compare Ideas Rationally

4 Wheel Drive 2 Wheel Drive

Make a Decision Matrix

Time

Money

Knowledge

Power

Weight

2

2

2

1

2

1

1

1

2

1

Two wheels have advantages with respect to the 5 Budgets

Do the Math

W = WHAT you want the machine to do

H = HOW you expect the machine to do it

CD-10 = What the machine CAN DO given the available time and resources

(W/H) x CD-10 = Your Machine

Simple is Often Elegant

E = mc2

Good designers understandthe power

of simple elegance

Combine Subassemblies

Integrate the Parts

Test It, Evaluate It

Refine the Design

Think

Build

TestEvaluate

Modify

Refine the Design

Deliver a Working Robot

on Game Day“Win the Crowd Maximus…….”

Play With the ‘Bot and Learn to

DRIVEYou worked for this,

enjoy the games