Marker Dropper – Design Changes

During testing, we noticed that replacing the markers took quite a long time, as the front plate needed to be completely unscrewed and then screwed back in. To resolve this, we cut two large holes into the top of the marker enclosure for dropping the markers in. As we plan to do a barrel roll during the competition, we can’t simply leave these open, so we purchased two rubber stoppers that can be quickly removed and replaced to add the markers. We had also considered two holes cut out of the front plate, but this idea was abandoned as it would be hard to access with the sonar mount in front of it. 

We also noticed that the marker dropper trapped air inside the crescent that slowly leaked out throughout our pool test. This affected our robot’s buoyancy, which can lead to unpredictable movement, so we added a few additional holes in the top of the marker enclosure for air to escape.

One issue we look forward to resolving in the future is the complexity of the print. Because of its shape, any orientation we print the marker dropper takes a long time and has lots of supports that can affect tolerances. A future design composed of several smaller, simpler pieces may be more difficult to assemble but would reduce printing time and increase print quality.