​The Evil Purple Sox
M A J K
pronounced /'majik/
2015-16 ROBOT GAME
MAJK (an acronym of the first letters of our names) is the robot used to compete in the 2014-15 FTC season, Cascade effect.
MAJK brought us all the way from our first qualifier in Southwest VA to the World Championships.
OVERVIEW
MAJK's main frame is made entirely from tetrix bars. The base is a sheet of pegboard found in our coach's garage.
The individual components of MAJK include a lift made of 80/20, a lexan box, and a flipper made of rubber tubing.
THE LIFT, BOX, AND "TOILET SEAT"
The lift is made of durable 80/20 to ensure maximum stability. We used a pully system along the tops of each piece of 80/20 so we could raise the lift using minimal power. The wheel the string wraps around is a solid circle we had 3D printed because we needed something more sturdy than an axle.
The box that's on top of the lift is comprised of lexan and flat textrix pieces that serve as braces. It's shaped a bit like a funnel so balls can fit inside of it in a zigzag pattern, taking up less space than if the sat single file.
The "toilet seat" is a hinged flap on one end of the box attachment that keeps balls in the box until it's time to release them. Once we do release the balls, the toilet seat helps direct the balls into the tube by funneling them through a hole cut in the middle. The flap is opened and closed by a servo on the side of the box.
THE FLIPPER
The flipper is a wooden dowel with loops of rubber tubing on it. It's spun by a gear and motor off to the side. We use the flipper to hit balls up a lexan ramp into the box attachment.
THE MUD FLAPS
The "mud flaps" are square pieces of bullet resistant lexan attached in front of and behind each wheel to prevent stray whiffle balls from interfering with our driving.
THE GRIPPER
The gripper is an attachment we made out of an average doorstop. We put it on the back of the robot so we could clamp down on the side of a tube and drag it around with us, meaning we could score faster and drag tubes up the ramp.
CAD DESIGN
We used Creo, our favorite CAD software, to 3D model our robot.
Modeling the design as a whole, as well as each individual component helped us rebuild and repair our robot when needed. It also helped us understand and rationalize our designs before we ever built them.
MATCHES
MAJK competed in two qualifying tournaments, the VA State Tournament, East Super Regionals, and the World Championship tournament.
With MAJK, we were able to be a part of the winning alliance at Southwest, a finalist alliance at Orange, a finalist alliance at State, and a semi-finalist alliance at East.
HIGHLIGHTS
In this VA State Tournament match, our alliance (Evil Purple Sox and Techie Tornados) sets the VA high score of 695 points.