Week of 2/13/12

This week was devoted to the grasp/release mechanism. We have held off on this component due to it being a subsystem that did not prevent the vehicle from progressing to the final stages. We purchased two double acting air cylinders for the initial design, recently this has changed to only utilizing one double acting air cylinder. After redesigning the grasp release mechanism with a different geometry for the claws and knowing the displacement of the air cylinder to be two inches. It was deemed that the width of the mechanism would have to be too great to allow for proper rotation about the pivot point. The dimensions would not physically work and the air cylinder would prematurely halt created unnecessary stress on the mechanism. The conclusion was to see if we can return the two previously purchased air cylinders and utilize an air cylinder with only one inch of displacement.