Sneak peak at our upcoming modular decks

[Matt]

Hey everyone,

Here's a sneak peak at the decks which we hope to have ready to sell this spring. They are aluminum and work with the whole line of Banebots 36mm gearboxes (http://www.trossenrobotics.com/store/c/3086-BaneBots.aspx). These decks are very sturdy and can handle carrying a mini-PC with A LOT of battery weight. Enough to last all day. We have designed this to be a highly configurable modular solution for building mid sized PC based robot chassis.

The decks are 18" x 14"

Below is the motor deck, it has:
- 4 sets of motor slots for varying gearbox ratios
- 8 sensor slots around the perimeter (range sensors, cameras, etc)
- lots of gills for velcro straps to hold down batteries and components
- 12 perimeter holes for standoffs to stack multiple decks
(standoffs can be used anywhere on the interior grid as well)
- 2" grid pattern of holes for mounting hardware and hardware platforms
- wide 1" through holes for wiring


http://www.trossenrobotics.com/images/forums/motordeck500.jpg

This is the upper deck it features:
- 8 sensor slots around the perimeter (range sensors, cameras, etc)
- 12 perimeter holes for standoffs to stack multiple decks
(standoffs can be used anywhere on the interior grid as well)
- 2" grid pattern of holes for mounting hardware and hardware platforms
- many large 1" through holes for running wires

http://www.trossenrobotics.com/images/forums/upperdeck500.jpg


close up of the gill slots for velcro

http://www.trossenrobotics.com/images/forums/HoldingVelcrosm.jpg


Sensor slots make mounting sensors very easy

http://www.trossenrobotics.com/images/forums/sonarcornersm.jpg
http://www.trossenrobotics.com/images/forums/SonarSidesm.jpg

We will also provide/sell sticky rubber sheeting for laying under batteries and components which keeps them in place. You won't believe how good this stuff is! We have set batteries on this rubber and been able to lift the entire bot off the floor by the rubber sticking to them. The rubber & velcro system eliminates the hassle of building battery cases and drilling down every little component. Huge time saver.

http://www.trossenrobotics.com/images/forums/rubbersm.jpg

Bot with Battery on rubber sheet:
http://www.trossenrobotics.com/images/forums/Battery.jpg

The standoff posts make it super easy to build multi-layered robots with as few or as many decks as you desire. You can customize your own spacing between decks also. The size and structure of your robot is totally up to you.

http://www.trossenrobotics.com/images/forums/ScrewinHolesm.jpg

Combine standoffs to custimize your deck spacing:

http://www.trossenrobotics.com/images/forums/standoffs2.jpg

3 foot robot! (note: this example has older decks on it)
http://www.trossenrobotics.com/images/forums/T14Layer.jpg



Here is a picture of the underside with 4 motors and 2 encoders mounted.

http://www.trossenrobotics.com/images/forums/Bottomwithmotors500.jpg

PS: You can read these encoders via USB with the Phidget high speed encoder reader (http://www.trossenrobotics.com/store/p/3236-Phidget-Encoder-High-Speed.aspx).

http://www.trossenrobotics.com/images/blogposts/T1Full200.jpg

You can check out a video of these decks (well, the last version) on an older blog post here (http://blog.trossenrobotics.com/index.php/archives/2006/12/04/pc-robot-demo-sneak-peak/). Note that the blue storage box we were pushing around was at least 30 pounds! These are tough little bots :)

Check out the latest version of Robot Magazine as well to read an article which uses our deck prototypes.

[Dave]

It's also worth noting that, even though there are tons of holes and slots in these decks, they are still sturdy as heck. We're not messing around, here!