THIS MONTH:
Who’s
Vex?
afew months ago we dismantled
our beloved Vex robot, the
Hungry Hungry Hippo (see the
July 2005 issue for the exploits of this
talented robot) to provide parts for
the Surveyor Drive Base. Actually, Vex
parts have made it onto a number of
our robotics projects, including our
ROV for the 2008 MATE Competition,
our multimedia Scribbler artist, and
several others. Now our once proud
Vex robot has been reduced to an
immobile pile of parts, and it
certainly deserves better than that.
Its mechanical body may be no more,
but the Vex brain is still alive and well
with the appropriately named Easy
C programming language and a
fun radio controller. All it needed
was a new body.
Calling All
Robot Skeletons
One of our favorite robotics
projects of yore that has somehow
managed to avoid a mention in this
column is Protobot. FIRST Team 1079
built Protobot in preparation for the
2005 season (Triple Play) out of
remnants from older FIRST kits and
our 2004 FIRST contender Modos (for
more on the adventures of Team
1079 and Modos check out the
September–December 2004 issues).
Team 1079 had a crop of new
recruits that year, and the idea behind
Protobot was to show new team
members that building a robot need
not be a daunting task. We also
wanted to try out the stock frame
that came with the FIRST kit. In
previous seasons, we had a custom
aluminum frame welded, but the
kit frame offered a much faster
alternative that appeared equally
efficacious in terms of structural
integrity.
Protobot also provided an open
forum to try out some drive train
designs that we may not have been
adventurous enough to tackle during
a regular six week FIRST build season.
The basis for Protobot’s drive train
was the gear train from Modos. The
drive train employed two CIM motors
with a two stage gear reduction. We
FIGURE 1. THE REMNANTS OF THE
HUNGRY HUNGRY HIPPO.
FIGURE 2. THE VEX ROBOT
MICROCONTROLLER.
FIGURE 3. THE VEX RADIO.
SERVO 05.2009
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