By: Natalie Arevalo (Design & Manufacturing Engineer)

Approved by: Lucas Gutierrez (Project Manager)

Introduction

As part of the ModWheels team, I was asked to make various modifications to the existing model of the KidStuff’s car. Additionally, a new part was designed and integrated into the modified model. More parts will be designed in the future as holders for additional components. However, the following blog post expands on the modifications mentioned above as well as the newly designed part. The blog post ends with the full assembly of the ModWheels model.  

Model Designs

Top and Bottom Panels

Both the top and bottom parts of the chassis were altered to accommodate 3DoT 5.03. The main changes involved moving the opening for the battery holder as well as the access points for the pin headers on the top part of the chassis. For the bottom of the chassis, the accesses points for the bluetooth module and the color shield were also moved. Additionally, holes were made in which dawls would be placed to put a platform on top of them to hold a phone. Lastly, holes were made on the top and bottom of the chassis to place zip ties which will hold wires out of the way of any moving parts. All of these changes can be seen below.

Figure 1: Bottom Panel

Figure 2: Top Panel

Front Axle

The front axle is composed of three major components: a front pivot axle, a connector from the front pivot axle to the wheel axle, and the wheel axle. Two different versions of the front pivot axle were initially rendered by the Design & Manufacturing Engineer for P-Bot, Railan. One of these two models was used for the front pivot axle after making the part thinner. After this modification was completed, the connector and wheel axle were modeled in SolidWorks from the given .stl file. All of these parts can be seen in the following figures.

Figure 3: Front Pivot Axle

Figure 4: Front Pivot Axle to Wheel Axle Connector

Figure 5: Wheel Axle

 

Servo Holder

Some additional modifications were made to the servo holder as well. The height of the holder was decreased and the motor heads on it were also made hollow. Hooks on one side of the holder were also added to place the wires of the proximity sensor in the front away from any moving parts. The modifications for this part of the design can be seen here:

Figure 6: Servo Holder

 

Wheels

A minor change was made to the back wheels of the car. The hole where they are inserted into the GM6 motors were changed into D shaped to be able to be fit into the motor shaft.  The changes can be seen in the following picture.

Tire treads were designed, modeled, and provided by Jeff Gomes.  

Figure 7: Wheel

Figure 8: Wheel Tread (Designed, modeled, and provided by Jeff Gomes)

Full 3D Model

With all the changes and additions mentioned before, a new full 3-D model of our robot was assembled. The full model also includes the IR shield which was missing before. The 3-D model of the ModWheels car can seen be here.

Figure 9: Full 3D Model