Brainstroming

One of the most crucial parts of an ROV is its arm. Without the arm the ROV cannot properly perform its operations. Having a working and easy to control arm is a key to winning the MATES competition. Seen at the bottom of this post is the sketches I have made and above them the corresponding information from each design in numerical order.

The first arm design is a simple claw design in which two gripping claws, each being placed on the opposite side of each other are used to grab hold of an object. The two components of the arm are attached to separate rods, which then connect to two different motors allowing each competent of the claw to be used individually allowing for more freedom. This design has both the strength to do some of the heavier jobs because of the two separate motors, and it can also perform the more delicate tasks because of the flexibility the dual motor system allows.

The second design is another simple one in which a claw is created using to components situated at the top and bottom of the arm. The vertical movement allows for the arm to grab wider objects, than the horizontal movements do. The systems works by a single grooved rod that is either extends or retreats opening or closing the claw then it is turned to lock it in place. The system would work well for any tasks that require the rov to grab a very wide object rather than a tall one. The only problem with is design is the strength of the grip is vastly weaker that some of the others.

The third design is a combination design of the first and second design. With both a horizontal and vertical movements the arm could grasp almost anything. The arm could handle any task that was assigned to do. the only issue with this design is its power consumption and how to control it

The forth design is the most complex design. This design uses multiple levels to create a more advanced arm which can change height and move forward out of the ROV to grab objects. This design however is very bulky, hard to program and control, heavy, and very power consuming.

The final design that I brainstormed was the two pronged arm which was designed to have a long reach to allow the ROV to waste less time getting to the object. Although the reach is good on this design it has a lot of stress on both prongs and little gripping strength.