VEXU Over Under
My over-the-top robot for the 2023-2024 VEX game, Over Under
Background
Being my last season, I decided to build a robot that was an iteration of last season’s famous bot, as the game allowed a similar loophole. For more information about the game, see the official game reveal.1 However, many improvements were made to the air cannon to make it more efficient, which allowed me to fit three of them on the 24” robot. This allowed three shots instead of only one. It is called “Revolver” since the cylinders spin. There is a slip ring on the spin axis so that the main assembly can rotate infinitely.
Unique Mechanism
The part I am most proud of this season, besides the entirety of Revolver, was an aluminum claw that I manufactured on my DIY CNC machine. The cool part is that is uses an over-center mechanism inside the claw, which means when the claw clamps down on the climbing pole, the pneumatic cylinder cannot be back driven. The force of the jaws is directed perpendicularly to the cylinder actuation direction. This means it uses very little air pressure to clamp, and can hold in excess of 150 pounds (we stood on it for testing).
15” Robots
I built a couple 15” robot designs, which focused more on scoring or climbing, both integral parts of the game. 
Turret catapult, where the entire catapult can rotate to face the goal. The intake is floating on linear rods
Revolver
CAD Model by me (all wires and tubing modelled), render by Ayush Palse
Video
I collected all footage and edited the following video, and it acts as an overall showcase of the robot:
The team was interviewed by First Updates Now at the 2024 VEX World Championships, and were in fact the first VEXU team to be interviewed by them. I am the first speaker, where I explain our thought process and how the firing mechanism works.