G.R.I.P
G.R.I.P was an event in
their technical festival (Techfest 06) organized by IIT Bombay. In
this competition, a machine needs to pick up a solid cylinder that
rests on the floor while navigating across with the help of elevated
grid of steel rods. Semicircular ring is built over it in such away
that it can be picked by a hook. After picking it up, it should be
deposited in a slot which again rests on the floor.
Our approach to it is made this way.
We started off designing a machine which can move along the grid of steel rods while hanging down from them. So a base is made with wood on which four perpendicular motors are attached. The shafts of those motors are connected to hand like structures. These hand like structures hold wheels (powered by their own motors) at the other end so that it can hold the steel rod as well as navigate along it. These hands can open and close with the help of motors attached on the base. They can be engaged or disengaged by turning motors on base in clockwise/ anticlockwise direction. Finally, the hanging part was completed.
A hooking mechanism was developed for picking up and depositing the solid cylinder. We got hold of some hooks from hardware shop. Then four hooks are combined so that it can connect to the semicircular ring in any direction. This hook set was connected to a perpendicular motor. This mechanism was hanged down from the base with the help of four threads. These threads were wound on a motor shaft so that the hooking mechanism can be moved down or up as desired. These four threads are used to improve the stability of hooking mechanism by constraining it to oscillate with large amplitudes.
What we achieved
IIT Bombay asked the participants to send their videos showing their machines work. We recorded a video and sent it. That was listed in their website as it cleared first preliminary round. In the second preliminary round our machine wasn't performed very well and we are our of competition.
Time it took
It took 2 days and 2 nights (that too during our semester).
Thanks to
Carpentry workshop, NIT durgapur.
This workshop not only helped us in this project.
Prof Sanjit Kumar Datta
Our Head of Dept, Electronics and communication Engineering. He encourages students to take part in competitions like these. He is always ready to give permissions to students who want to participate in such events.