Candy Dispenser

When our group was assigned the candy dispenser project, and after the initial rush of ideas, the first important step w took was to make drawings of various prototypes. We knewfromp early on that we wanted to automate our machine, and we designed around that idea. While Milo and Jeff worked on the code in the Arduino IDE, Madison and I built the physical machine. We went through several rough prototypes, eventually settling on a sort of hourglass design with a lever bisecting the box. However, because the electronics were not completed until the final day, we had to mad rush to mount everything, meaning that the final box was unstable, poorly thrown together, and barely worked.

I learned through this two important lessons. First, that delegation of labor is a key step in the design process. By breaking up the team to work on both aspects of the box, we were effectively able to progress on everything at once. The second lesson is on the importance of deadlines. Because the electronics were not complete until very late, we did not have adequate time to mount them and finish the box.

One strategy we used to brainstorm multiple ideas was to visualize different mechanisms by which an object could be moved. These included ideas as simple as a human operated slide and as complex as a Rube Goldberg machine. During this process, we would make not of ideas that we found exceptionally interesting as well as functions that we believed would make the candy machine both more efficient and require less human intervention. It was through this thought process that we decided to mechanize the machine.

We also built through an interactive process. Early designs had gaps through which the candy could fall, non-functional levers, and other problems that would render the candy dispenser useless. Through each step of building, we would adapt the design to fix these problems, which ultimately lead to the semicircular feeder mechanism that we presented to the class.

A way that we engendered a creative team environment was through the division of labor into groups. After developing a broader understanding of our goals altering bandying ideas off of one another, every body was assigned research on a specific component of the design. After we researched, each person came back and explained their research to the group at large. We used this newfound understanding to further develop our ideas as well as to fine tune our direction.