Quick Pinless Attachments for LEGO EV3 Competition Robots (Part 1) Pro Preview

You think that you can quickly change the attachments of your LEGO Mindstorms EV3 competition robot? Are you sure? In this first episode of the series you will see how to create and attach attachments without using pins and how faster and easier this could be. You will see the design logic of a few attachments and how they work on the field. 

  • #63
  • 30 Nov 2014
  • 8:43

Construction

The first part shows a construction similar to the one shown in Episode 60. The construction presents the logic of how to make a quick pinless attachment. The robot from Episode 58 has been used for the current presentation.

Attachment base

The second part of the video shows how to make a base for various pinless attachments. Usually, there are two bases designed for one robot. While the robot is using one of the bases on the field, the other remains with the team who attach the construction necessary for the following missions. When the robot returns to the base, the quick pinless attachment base is removed and the other one is attached and vice versa.

Adapter

The third part of the video shows how to build an adapter. This is a construction connecting the base to the attachment. One adapter could be used for several attachments. It is also possible to have an adapter for each attachment.

The purpose of the base, the adapter and the quick pinless attachment is to save parts which could be used for the making of whole attachments.

The last part of the video shows how the robot behaves on the field.

We are looking forward to your comments. We would be happy if you share how this video has been useful to you.

Instruction for building the Quick Attachment

Instructions for building the quick attachments for this LEGO robot

Pinless attachment FIRST LEGO League 2012 missions example program

The example program used at the end for solving the FIRST LEGO League 2012 missions

English

In this cast I will talk about quick attachments. How to make and use them; what their benefits and issues are. For example, this is a normal pin attachment. It's easily mounted but when you have to remove it, the pins are the bad guys - you have to remove them by hand and this is a time-taking process. The quick attachment is easily mounted; it has enough strength and it's easy to remove. In this cast some complex constructions will be discussed and the way to design them.

As a specific example, the senior sollution flag challenge will be coped with.

This robot will be used to demonstrate the attachment. This is the attachment. It's very similar to the one from cast 60.

This is the way it works.

OK. Now, when you have the attachment and the robot, all you have to do is find a way to make a rigid connection between them. When you know your construction and the construction of the robot, you have to find a way to make the construction rigid in the easiest way. Probably, one of the easiest ways for that robot is to use that channel here.

These three parts can be used.

This is the first one, this is the second one and this is the third one.

This is a very simple lock. All you have to do after you put the attachment is to lock it. Now it's very durable

and very easy to remove. Probably, you are going to need a lot of attachments during the competition. This means a lot of parts. if you don't have a lot of parts, you may use a quick pinless attachment base. It's a carrier for normal attachments. So, while the robot is on the field with the first base and the attachment to it, the second one is with you where you can remove the previous attachment and put the attachment you are going to need. So, when the robot is back to the base, you can quickly change the attachments. And so on, until the end of the race. The quick pinless attachment base design logic is pretty simple. The first thing to do is decide where to place the attachment base. For that robot, these beams and the sensor shield will be used. The second thing to do is decide what kind of element you will use for a base of the attachment. For example, this beam will be used for this robot. It has to be placed like this. To do that, you may use some angled beams. Like these.

Here it is.

And you are ready. In that way, however, the base may easily fall. So, to prevent this, you have to make a grabber to lock the attachment to the robot. In this case, the same angled beams could be used. Like that.

So, you can easily attach it to the robot. And detach it. If you're in a hurry, you may use force to detach it.

Up to now, you have the attachment and the base.

What you need now is an adaptor to make the connection between the attachment and the base. To make this adaptor, you need to decide how to attach the connection to the base. In this case, this hole here will be used. Like this.

And a beam will be used here.

Like this. This beam is going to be placed here.

OK.

This is going to be the adaptor. For connecting these two beams you may use this type of element.

Like this.

And like this. But, as you can see, it's not very stable. Not at all. So, to make it stable, you may detach the attachment

and use this kind of beam

to make it more stable.

Now you have a fully equipped quick attachment which could be used on the robot. It's very durable

and you may unlock it by using force. So, now, you have the attachment,

you have the adaptor

and the base. The attachment will be demonstrated on the field now.

And this is it. Another type of quick pinless attachments will be shown in some of the next videos. We'd like to see your constructions of quick pinless attachments and we are looking forward to your comments and suggestions below. Thank you.

Courses and lessons with this Tutorial

This Tutorial is used in the following courses and lessons

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