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5. Fire Force

Intro Recently in Southern California, wildfires have raged constantly, endangering the lives and property of millions of citizens as well as the lives of the brave firefighters on the frontlines battling the infernos. In order to combat the infernos engulfing the state, we were inspired to design and create a firefighting robot to try to save not only millions of dollars, but lives as well. This robot is designed to report and extinguish small fires before they get out of hand. Using advanced 3D modeling technology we designed a part in order to connect our advanced water pump system to the complicated robotic lifting and lowering mechanism. Part Explanation  Our robot, Fire Force, utilizes a pumping system which requires a cap to be raised and lowered with force. We used two VEX motors to lift and drop a shaft. However, we needed a way to connect our shaft and pumping system. We designed a 3d part to fit perfectly around the cap of our pump while allowing a shaft, which is elevated and lowered by the robot, to conjoin with the pump. The design on the bottom half of the part is so it can smoothly connect to the pump while having it secured in place. This part allows for seamless connection between the two systems allowing it to quickly put out any fire. Part Creation Through Autodesk Inventor Professional 2020, we created a part synchronizing our cap and shaft system. Starting with extruding a cylinder which our cap could comfortably fit within, we proceeded to use extrude cuts to hollow the inside and remove the walls on one half. By removing a section of the bottom, our cap had the capability to be lodged inside. In order to design the shape our shaft could connect with, we created a work plane that cut our part in half. Using this work plane we extruded a rounded rectangular shape with a hollow cylinder running through. This shape allowed the shaft to be connected to become seamlessly connected to the pump.  Conclusion  With the ability to quickly design customized parts, engineers can seamlessly synergize multiple systems or improve the functionality of a device. 3D design software will be helpful in the future, because the custom pieces allow ideas to be fully realized. This software helps those on competitive robotics teams when they’re created to fit perfectly with the robot, giving it a leg up in the competition. However, this doesn’t only apply to competitions; the ability to produce parts aids in many aspects of an engineering career, including production of systems to complete a task. Learning 3D design software will be helpful in our career paths; by allowing us to explore new ways of problem solving, we can creatively practice quick solutions to specific issues.