Multi-Axis Arm Design

Robot Design Concept

This robot was not designed for any specific FRC game, but rather as a specific project for Team 4817 to practice designing advanced multi-axis arms. This would actually prove to be quite a useful project as the competition design made following this off-season project was Team 4817's primary robot for the 2024 FRC game Crescendo. The project was to attempt to make an at least 5 axis arm design that would be capable of picking up a soda can and pour the drink to hydrate a short FRC team member.

The CAD team broke off into multiple smaller teams to each individual work on this project to increase involvement. This design here is the one that was the closest to completion at the end of the project's timeline. This design ended up being accidentally a 6 axis arm because during the planning of the design, as it was determined an extra linear axis was needed so that the robot could reach high enough to pour the soda can into the FRC team member's mouth.

The main key part of this design is the multi-axis arm which can be found in Macro Design: Preparing for the Game Drop subchapter 9.4. Details on the claw section of the design can also be read about in Macro Design: Preparing for the Game Drop subchapter 10.5. 

Robot Design Concept

Unfortunately the design was never built, so the team is not sure how well the mechanisms would even function. Possibly in the future this will be a practice project for Team 4817's mechanical sub team to build something complicated during on off-season. Theoretical learnings are rather sparse because this design pushed the boundaries of what Team 4817 could design at the time. The project is about intentionally making a complex multi-axis arm for the sake of it, so there is not even a learning point about trying to achieve the same thing with a simpler design.