Concept Summary

Our team strategy consists of one simple movement to push every ping pong ball from our own side of the arena to our opponents. After collaborating and discussing other ways of moving ping pong balls to our opponents side of the arena, we determined this would be the best. Our machine concept is made up of three modules(Assembled in Figure 3). The first of these modules is the cartthat sits on top of the arena. This mobile cart can will be driven by the double motor given to us in our kit, allowing maxiumum mobility.

Attached to the cart will be our second and third module. There will be an arm hanging downwards through the center of our cart(Figure 1). The arms puropose is to collect and lift the ping pong balls on our side of the arena. The arm will be able to travel vertically via a rack and pinion system and will also have an articulating scoop on the end. The mobility of our arm will allow us to reach those difficult corners of the arena to pick up any of the balls.

Figure 1: Arm and Shaft Module

The final module is our defensive wall module(Figure 2) attached to the front of out cart. The wall is a large supported plate to defend against our opponents carts or air attacks. The wall will have two additional flaps attached to torque springs allowing our wall to become larger expanding our defensive range.

Figure 2: Wall Module

Figure 3: Conceptual Sketch and Full Assembly