Working with the Engineering Design Process

Throughout our project, we've had many errors.
Through the mandated use of the Engineering Design Process, we've been able to overcome these, and continue on with the development of SASHA 5.1.  The robot in it's latest form contains two arms, two brains, five motors, two transmitters, and requires two remotes to run.  We believe that right now, we are done with all developments and that no further ones will need to be made.
The robot, SASHA 5.1, looks like this:

Top view

Side view

 Some of the problems we've encountered have been:

• Inability to pick up a ball (no arm)--This led to development of SASHA 5.1
• Inability to hold ball
• Lack of speed
• Lack of power
• Incontrollable arm
• Extremely unbalanced robot (this led to several developments/changes)
• Inability to turn
• Lack of controller ability to control the robot properly

 Because we couldn't hold the ball, we added a separate mechanism to lock the ball in when we pick it up.  This required an extra motor, upping our count to 4 motors.  We then upgraded to extra large wheels, with a back wheel that has the ability to travel in 360 degrees.  Then, we added a counterweight in the back to prevent the robot from tipping forwards when we lifted the arm.  We experimented with different stopping mechanisms, and settled on a vex piece that would cause the arm to stop moving when it was pressed against the rest of the robot as the arm was lifted.  Later, we added a different arm on the opposite side to stop it from being unbalanced.  Our robot is basically complete, and we think that this will be the final product.
As always, subscribe to our blog and stay posted for additional developments.