Building the Pink Panther

The Pink Panther robot extends to its full height to place the yellow ball on top of the goal.

The Douglas High team wanted to build a mechanism that could pick up a large rubber ball and lift it on top of a goal, like in the image pictured on the right.

To do that, they drew out a design on paper that looked like it would work. Then an engineer helping the team did a complete 3-D computer aided design (CAD) using a software package called Pro-E. This package made it possible to move the model on-screen and make sure everything would move correctly in the finished robot.

The team had perhaps 15 core students who put in a lot of hours, and a total of 34 members. The team members took the design from the CAD package and cut/bent the aluminum tubes that would form the structure of the robot. The tubes then went to Bob Bateman for welding. As they came back from the bike garage, assembly began.

The ball-scooping claw is a fairly complex mechanism. The arm for the claw extends and retracts using a van-door motor. The tower tilts forward and back, and this tilt is provided by a lead screw and CIM motor. The claw opens and closes with a double-acting pneumatic (meaning it runs on compressed air) cylinder running at 20 PSI. The pressurized air comes from two small canisters that are pumped up before the competition. The driver has only six cycles of opening and closing the claw before the Pink Panther runs out of compressed air.

A serpentine belt drives the wheels on both sides. You can also see the motor for the lead screw, and another motor and belt to extend the frame.

With the claw complete ahead of schedule, the team decided to design and build a ball-scooping mechanism in the last 48 hours. It used one more CIM motor to power the ball-gathering roller. A Victor motor controller controls all of these motors under the direction of the radio control receiver.

The robot can lean all the way forward to grab a ball.

The team also added five light sensors on the front of the robot. The sensors let the Pink Panther follow a white line on the grey carpet. For the first 15 seconds of the match, the robot follows the line to knock a ball off a post, thereby beginning a game.

In the photo below, you can see the aluminum frame (with numerous holes to lighten the robot and keep it within the 130 pound weight limit), the two main drive motors (from portable electric drills), the five yellow light sensors that let the robot track a line on the floor, and the motor controller.

A good view of the complexity of one of these machines.

With the robot complete, the team crated it up (before the end of the six-week deadline) and sent it to Atlanta for the regional competition in March.

If they had won, the Pink Panther team would have made another trip to Atlanta, where the national competition was held in April. The completed robot weighed in at just under the 130 pound maximum weight (they drilled holes in parts of the frame to lighten it). It stands five feet tall, and then extends to nine feet tall to reach over the top of the goal.

The Pink Panther robot and its radio control unit on their way to the regional competition.

At the end of week six, all of the robots are sealed in crates and sent to the competition site. Teams do not see their robots again until they arrive at the competition site and get ready to compete. Hopefully the robot ships without damage and works when uncrated.

At the end of week six, each robot is sealed in a crate and sent to the competition site.