Our meetings have been going well: our robot drives reliably and we are working with sensors to program traction control. Another segment of our build team has also been working on bumpers. We chose to program in C++ instead of LabView because our programmers and mentors have more experience working in a similar environment.
My dad and I recently finished building the trailer, so here are some observations and tips that would help with building the trailer.
First, hot gluing the pipes into the trailer does not work. Instead, we cut bigger rings of PVC and glued them to hold the pipes in place. The bottom ring prevents it from falling through the bottom layer of the trailer and the top ring prevents it from wobbling up and down. This design works well, but it requires the pipes to be put in the trailer before the bumpers are attached, because they can’t be put down through the top later.
Next, the design that holds the trailer tongue with three wood screws seemed flimsy because the trailer would be dragged around by it. I attached additional brackets around the pole so that it would not be broken off on accident. The wheels were supposed to be attached by a long bolt to a bracket on only one side, so I reinforced that by attaching a metal bracket on the other end. The image on the right shows both of these improvements.
Here I am with the finished product:
