We needed suggestions for designing a robot to pick up certain objects. We have designed certain mechanisms for picking up a tennis ball, d cell battery, but we are stuck on how to pick up 5 3x5 index cards. Any suggestions or comments maybe helpful.
The “Ask the Experts” forum is not intended to provide design assistance, but to provide Official Vex Technical support.
I am moving this question into the General forum, where other Vex users can help you.
Good Luck,
John
What orientation are these index-cards in?
Are they flat on the floor?
something that would stick to the cards, rasie them off the ground enought for a claw to get under them could work. or maybe a vacuum with a suction cup on the end.
A vacuum might not work well, as the note cards are in a stack, and picking them up one at a time isn’t very efficient, given the time constraints of the event, not to mention, a vacuum small enough to put on a robot and still have the robot fit within the 30x30x30cm size limit might be pretty hard to find.
Instead, I would try to make a part with a flat metal panel on the bottom, with an intake roller system mounted perpendicular to it, touching the bottom panel, to pull the cards into some kind of holding compartment, then drop them into the 30x30x30 box simply by reversing the direction of the roller.
Ex:
_________*------------
Solid line: Metal Panel
Asterisk: Intake Roller (Touching panel)
Dotted Line: Note card (goes b/t roller & panel)
This seems like a good idea. I was going to recommend something along this line. Try prototyping a system similar to the one described above, and see if it works out for you.
-John
Is this for Science Olympiad? My friend is in it and he has to do something very much like what you are discribing.
I think that some kind of revolving broom that sweeps up the index cards would be a good idea. The prongs of the broom could be rubber so it could grip the notecard better and sweep it into a pan.
im not sure if this would work but if you ‘sweep’ the card with anti-slip mat coming from both ends of the card it might be able to pick up the card or at least drag it better