VEX IQ Hinge
thecla.uriyo
Entry ID #: 7454
Created: Sat, Jan 11, 2020 6:51 PM
Our team during the early design process were looking at creating a robot with a "pincher" element on the arm which could grab cubes. We thought if we could have a part which could function in a similar way to a hinge that could be very make that process of grabbing the cube much easier. We think a hinge piece would improve functionality by creating a method of moving 2 VEX pieces in an angular fashion that could be controlled. The issue we are trying to solve is to pick up a cube. The new part is used by attaching the 2 clip 2x5 beam to a fixed surface on the robot arm and the other 1 clip 2x5 beam would be attached to a moveable element on the arm that is connected to a motor. So this new VEX piece acts in a similar way to a door hinge. We think this piece could actually be used in many different ways on the robot - especially in areas that need a pivot. We used Autodesk Inventor 2020 to design and asssemble our piece. We created 3 parts to this piece. Part 1 - we created a 2x5 2 clip beam, Part 2 - we created a 2x5 1 clip beam and Part 3 - we created a pin that would connect both beams together. We assembled all 3 parts to create the finished prototype. From this project we learned that using CAD can help us create new ideas very effectively. Using Autodesk Inventor helped us bring our prototype to life from a simple hand sketch. We think this hinge piece has a lot of potential and can be used at different scales and sizes. We will definitely be using Inventor again in the future to design parts and also to build our robot virtually. Inventor can help us on our competitive team because we can build robot prototypes much faster virtually which can help test many ideas quickly. I think learning and knowing how use 3D design software can help our team members in our careers because it gives us the ability to design and create in a tangible way. It gives us skills that can be used in may STEM career paths that we want to take.
