3D Printing Tank Wars at CalTech

Yearly, the Mechanical Engineering college students on the California Institute of Know-how in Pasadena are challenged to design, construct, and function a fleet of three robotic tanks that may efficiently navigate, management, and defend strategic base positions on a grass course. This yr marked the thirty third Annual Engineering Design Competitors. There have been six groups of 4, and nearly half of the contributors have been girls.

Mara was fortunate sufficient to run into The Riveters – an all-female group of engineers carrying iconic Rosie the Riveter ribbons. The tanks they entered into the competitors have been two-thirds 3D printed masterpieces. The tanks have been all 3D printed in numerous colours to match an iconic feminine trio – The Powder Puff Women!

They used 3D printing primarily for elements that weren’t load-bearing and that might be exhausting to machine, just like the motor mounts.  Additionally they saved backup prints helpful for on-site repairs in case of collisions on the course. They took full benefit of 3D printing for prototyping and testing their designs as they moved via a number of iterations as effectively.

College students fabricated their tanks utilizing the MAKEiT 3D printers within the Caltech machine store, or the Craftbots within the 3D printing lab, which can be used for private initiatives.

Right here is how the competitors labored: The robots moved out autonomously in the course of the first 40 seconds of the competitors. Then the rivals have been capable of remotely management the robots to maneuver the next aims; traverse and stability on a 10-foot seesaw, climb an elevated four-foot platform and push to activate a big button to seize a strategic place. Whereas direct ramming assaults have been towards the principles, you possibly can shoot Nerf balls at different robots, and for those who scored direct hits 3 times, the embattled robotic had to return to the beginning.  

Most groups operated two tanks at a time, so if one took a spill, they might swap it out for one more one of their fleet.

The competitors featured robots with tank-treads or wheels for mobility, big shovels or scoops to launch Nerf balls, and all of the robots have been constructed utterly from scratch – no manufactured elements have been allowed (aside from wiring!).

The design of the robots sometimes takes about six months – and it offers the groups invaluable expertise in what they’d come up towards within the skilled engineering world. The iterative strategy of design, fabricate, check, redesign, fabricate and retest simulates typical business cycles. So despite the fact that the tip result’s enjoyable and thrilling, the expertise transferring into the ‘real-world’ is invaluable.

The Riveters have been the undefeated champions of this competitors, due to technique, engineering, preparation, design, and creativity. They have been cautious to not over-design, and in reality, scrapped their first design utterly.  They designed their tanks to be dependable, and to resist the obstacles on the course and completed two weeks early, so that they had loads of time to observe – and get night time’s sleep the night time earlier than. 

Congratulations to The Riveters for a stellar efficiency – on Worldwide Ladies’s Day, no much less!  Even the mini trophies have been 3D printed on a LulzBot Taz 6. The massive trophy is a portion of an precise metal gear which can be handed alongside to subsequent yr’s winners. 

For extra details about the groups click on the hyperlink beneath.

http://www.mce.caltech.edu/occasions/me72

Are you utilizing 3D printing for an superior faculty mission?  Please depart me a remark – I’d love to listen to about it. 

I’m Mara and this has been your MatterHackers Minute.  Go be superior!