This is my robot for the Design & Manufacturing course (2.007) at MIT. At the beginning of the semester, students were given a robotics game that involved various opportunities and strategies for gaining points.

One way to acquire points was to lift an acrylic cutout of Tim the Beaver along a track mounted on the wall. After iterating over numerous linear motion mechanisms, I settled on a rack-and-pinion mechanism to lift the beaver as my primary method of acquiring points. Using a milling machine, I created aluminum and steel rails to guide the Delrin rack up and down the robot.

Unfortunately, COVID-19 cut the semester short, and students were sent home from campus. I took this as an opportunity to refine my CAD skills by developing a 1:1 3D model of the robot. By the end of the semester, I ensured my CAD model contained every nut, bolt, and rivet that would hold it together. I took time to ensure that my CAD solely consisted of components that could be found or machined in MIT's Pappalardo machine shop.  This restricted me immensely in the parts I was able to incorporate into the model, but ultimately paid off with a beautiful final CAD.

Be sure to check out the fabrication and prototyping photos below!