The chassis is a bent steel structure, with tabs spot welded together for strength. In order to reduce moment of intertia, we chose to make our chassis a stretched octagon shape. The stiffness of the steel provided a strong platform to support the rest of the components of the robot and to add precision to our control.
Careful machining and placement of holes for mounting and cable management made for a sleek look and effective assembly. Our chassis design also allowed us to contain much of the drive system and drive circuits under the robot, out of the way of pets.
To store all of the pets during the run, we fabricated a cage of bar stock and wire to hold our pets as well as to serve as a mount for our front arm and IR sensors. This front-mounted cage allowed us to drop animals over the front of our robot, and store three pets, which was necessecary to our strategy.
