Kirk Grimsley

Robotics Engineer, RPA Developer, and believer in the oxford comma

ODRB

The Optimized Driveline Robotic Base was my senior project started with the goal of designing a new type of drive train that could be used in robotic applications. To limit the scope the team decided to make a design optimized for the FIRST Robotics competition. The design was intended to outperform standard drive systems, in several ways. It would need to be able to turn about a point within the chassis in order to be comparably maneuverable. Second, it would have to be able to handle intuitively at higher speeds when the operator drove it. Finally, we wanted to increase the energy efficiency of the system to increase battery life, which was notoriously short due to the friction caused when turning a robot using tank drive. Our solution to these challenges was a custom version of Ackermann steering that our team refers to as "Enhanced Ackermann."






Eraserbot

Eraserbot was designed and created to be held vertically via a winch while it erased a dry erase board. A key limitation imposed was that the team could not simply mount the eraser to a motor and spin it, adding significant challenge in the design of moving the eraser. To solve this issue I designed a system of linear gears connected via chain and sprocket to centrally mounted motors. They would then allow the eraser to move left and right in a wiping motion. The other major design challenge was making sure our robot did not apply so much force to the board that it lifted itself up off of its surface. To ensure this did not happen I used four springs in combination with a linear potentiometer to determine if the robot were pressing too hard, and pull the eraser up toward the robot to reduce force if necessary.






Disasterbot

Named because the goal it set out to achieve was navigation and item gathering within a simulated disaster zone this robot had to navigate an obstacle course and manipulate objects. To do this it would use line sensors to find its way to simulated sensors. It would then have to use its arm to carry the sensors back along a different path to a station where it would hold the sensor so that a QRL code on it could be read. The QRL reader would then use an LED to tell the robot if this object was "dangerous" or "safe" and the robot would have to place dangerous objects in one pile and safe ones in another.