Mechanical Subsystem
A look inside the designed and fabricated parts of the DotBot.
Our mechanical system (rendered above) is a three axis gantry, with full mobility in the X and Y directions. The X and Y axis rails are all made from 8mm steel bars. The X axis rails are mounted on the plywood base with rail supports. The plates that move along the X axis are connected to the rails with linear bearings, and moved using a stepper motor and a timing belt. One side of the Y axis rails is mounted on each of these plates using the same rail supports, and the Y platform sits between these, connected by linear bearings. A solenoid is mounted to the Y platform, and provides a controlled, repetitive motion in the Z direction.
The X platforms (rendered on the right), traverse the X axis supporting the second stepper motor, which controls the movement in the Y direction through the second timing belt. The Y axis movement is reinforced laterally with a piece of folded sheet metal.
The Y platform traverses the Y axis and supports the solenoid, which controls the vertical dotting motion of the pen. The pen is held by a pen clamp (with an incorporated spring), which is connected to the solenoid with two clamps.
