Mechanism Examples

Annotated mechanisms organized by category. Each entry has a forkable Onshape document and an opinion attached — what it's good at, where it fails, what to copy.

Drivebases

• Parallel plate chassis — sandwich plates flank the drivetrain. Stiff, easy to mount everything off of.
• Bare motor chassis — motors as the structural members. Lightest, lowest part count, hardest to repair.
• Coaxial swerve — drive and steer share one axis through the wheel. Compact module, intricate transmission.
• Differential swerve — both module motors mix between drive and steer. Maximum power; highest complexity.

Intake/Outtake

• Compliant wheel intake — geared compliant wheels pull pieces in. Forgiving, fast.
• OpTake — over-the-top sweeping intake; the head pulls pieces backward into the bot.
• Claw — single-servo gripper. Simplest, slowest, most deterministic.
• Hood shooter — flywheel paired with a fixed hood above the wheel. Constrains launch angle for consistent shots.

Linear extensions

• Cascade slide, 3-stage — maximum reach for retracted length.
• Continuous-rigged slide — faster top-stage motion; less total reach.
• Telescoping arm — single-stage horizontal extension.
• Boxtube — square tube stages running on UHMW skids. Cheap, durable, easy to repair.
• MGN rails — linear motion guide rails on ball carriages. Precise and smooth, but expensive.

Rotating mechanisms

• Single-pivot arm — one motor; payload swings.
• Virtual four-bar arm — parallel links keep the end effector level.
• Slewing-ring turret — 360° rotation; high complexity.
• Shooter turret — yaw stage carrying a flywheel shooter. Aim while moving.
• Mini turret — small servo-driven yaw for an end effector. Quick repointing without rotating the arm.
• Rotating slides — a slide stack on a rotating base. Reach and reorient in one mechanism.