Week 9 - September 5-11

This week began with receiving some of the mechanical parts that we had been waiting for. The motors were received and tested to ensure that each motor runs. Image 8.1 shows one of the motors as it was delivered. You can see that there is a 'rim' around the outside of the face of the motor. This rim is a slight concern to our team as it may interfere with the drive system. If the pulley cannot be attached to the shaft in a way that allows the timing belt to rotate without hitting this outer rim then we may need to find a way to remove the rim.

Figure 8.1: 1/4HP DC motor

Figure 8.2 shows the motor with the pulley and timing belt attached. It seems like we will not need to remove the rim around the motor's face. Testing will need to be done to ensure that this configuration is stable enough (i.e. the pulley is attached to an appropriate length of the shaft) so that the system can withstand the necessary torque. Some testing was done just to run the motor with the pulley attached to make sure that it didn't wobble or vibrate.

Figure 8.2: DC Motor with Pulley and Timing Belt attached

As discussed last week, the timing belt system is needed so that we can mount the motors anywhere (along the same plane of the wheels) because the motor is slightly larger in diameter than the wheels. This means that we can not direct drive the wheels as originally intended. This week, upon the suggestion of one of the panelists from the proposal presentation, the Rover has been painted red using spray paint designed for cars and metal. At the time of writing this, the Rover is still wet and so an image is not shown but will be provided in next weeks progress log.

For the final mechanical module task this week, the mechanum wheels were received and prepped for connection to the timing belt/motor system. As shown in Figure 8.3, the mechanum wheels came with a 10mm shaft system. Out of concern for the structural stability of a small shaft, this has been removed so that a 5/16th D-shaft (much larger and sturdy) can be attached instead.

Figure 8.3: Mechanum Wheel with 10mm shaft removed

The next major task completed this week is that I started working on the project report. I formatted the table of contents, planned out each chapter and topics, and worked on Chapter 1. The first chapter is almost completed with only minor tweaks needed, which will be completed after meeting with our advisor on Friday, September 10th.