The new robot has been completely redone to accomodate needs and design flaws that were discovered in competition at the Bowling Green Falcon BEST Competition. The new design features a double-reverse-four-bar mechanism, a smaller dump container, an induction system, a specialized claw design, and a revised drive system.
The new drive system retains the tractor wheel design of the previous model, but instead of skid wheels, it involves two omni wheels, which greatly increased our turning ability. Traction was not lost as we retained the rubber tractor wheel design, which performed quite well at the Falcon BEST Competition.
At the Falcon BEST Competition, we noticed that the drive gears would often suck up the moon rocks onto the base of the robot. While this was not intentional at first, we realized this could be utilized to efficiently pick up the moon rocks simply by driving over them. With that in mind, we specialized the drive gears on the right side to include a gear-driven path for the moon rocks to travel. By driving over a spot with a moon rock, our robot can suck the moon rock up off the ground and into the dump mechanism, where we can rapidly deposit them into the collection bin.
To increase the abilities of the manipulator, the claw design became more specialized in order to allow for precise and strong gripping of solar cables, easier access to repairing the antenna, and quick and reliable retrieving of batteries.