156B Week 9

Progress Since Week 8

Hardware

• Posts were put in Cement

  • Quikmix cured within 24 hours

    • Used 1 whole 60 pound bag

  • Posts are not all completely perpendicular to the ground but better results than when in soil

    • Perpendicularity measured with a level

  • Posts were wrapped with plastic wrap and vaseline was used as a release

    • The posts can come out of the cement with a bit of pulling force

  • Users will have option to make this modular set up, or just leave the extrusions in the cement

• Functionality testing conducted with a variety of seeds

  • Using different seeding nozzles, UTM/vacuum pump are able to hold the following seeds in decreasing sizes

    • Pumpkin, cucumber, tomato

• Positioning

  • Can currently unspool “concurrently”

  • Issues arise when trying to spool in

    • We know the motors have the required torque to spool in (evidenced by sequential testing)

    • Seeking to improve configuration

      • Lowering motors?

  • Currently no “sensible” movement (moving to specific locations)

    • Sketch can currently spool/unspool motors at different speeds and revolutions

    • Will add sideways movement logic based on encoder counts and geometry

Hardware and Software Plans for Next week

• Continue positioning testing

  • Iterate code as testing progresses

• Reposition the motors to increase distance between spool and pulley

CAD

• Created exploded view of spool

• Created assembly and individual component drawings of the spool components

CAD - Goals for next week

• Create exploded view of UTM plate assembly

• Created individual component drawings of any non-FarmBot components

Documentation

• Kaela working on engineering drawings for spool and UTM plate

• Kaela working on exploded views for spool and UTM plate assemblies

• Sam working on user manual and explaining assembly of sub assemblies using labeled diagrams

  • What is the logical order for Step by step directions

    • The way we assembled things is not the logical way you would want to do it if you were given a kit of components

  • Being mindful of individuals who may not be as spatially aware as an engineer - how can we give directions that are clear for users of all experience levels?

Documentation - Goals for next week

• Euric and Robert to help with wiring diagrams and code integration

  • Refer to the same exact webpage that FarmBot used for wiring if wired in the exact same way

  • Explain the difference between the motor purposes

  • Extension cords?

• Euric and Robert to make flow chart of coding logic

• List out parts by section

  • Kaela - UTM, assembly drawing and figures

  • Euric - Cable Connection and Wiring and Tubing (and Homing), List of Materials (and links)

  • Robert - Code Integration and Homing

  • Sam - Frame, Support, Pulley and Winch System, Intro

  • All - Maintenance, troubleshooting, future suggestions

Materials Purchased this week

• Buckets

• Quick Mix

• L Brackets

• PVC and PVC Cutter

• Vaseline

• Seeds

Current Concerns (decreasing priority)

• How specific do the GD&T dimensioning need to be considering we don’t have access to any GD&T material to learn from?

  • Is it okay if we don’t fully abide by ASME GD&T standards because original FarmBot documentation does not have GD&T compliant engineering drawings?

Feedback from Meeting with Instructor (Preliminary Design Review Presentation)

• Annotate the images to highlight which components are which

  • Circle / identify where they are located in the image

  • Specifically slides 8 and 10

• Better explain/annotate what the GIFs are depicting

• Keep doing what you’re doing

• Note directly from prof but a general note

  • Explain how farmbot functions work (like seeding, weeding, water etc) then elaborate on changes and improvements

Feedback from Meeting with Sponsor

• Report Writing - shorter is better

  • If you can communicate it in fewer paragraphs and just as thoroughly, don’t feel the need to elaborate excessively

• If this helps - make the goal for positioning less precise

  • Precision within an inch, instead of centimeter

  • Then if feasible given time, then fine tune the precision & accuracy

• Documentation

  • Nick likes the step by step manual

    • Plan for clarity of specifying components

  • What is our plan for documentation of code?

    • Is it developed enough to feel like we’ve accomplished something and also documented in terms of logic?

      • Changing firmware to read 4 motors instead of 3

    • Can also upload specific functionality F and G codes

    • Commenting our code

    • Logic flow chart

• He likes how we’ve identified the balance between what is useful vs. what’s feasible

  • It’s realistic

  • Helpful for Nick and future teams

  • Nice to Haves but not possible given time

    • Not too intensive

  • Most important in our next steps - gear ratio

    • Don’t start if we’re going to finish half way and run out of time (i.e. wiring)

    • Don’t run the risk of running out of time and leaving it unfinished

• Next Steps for future teams

  • Make part of the documentation what the future goals are and the next steps for the next team

    • If we had an extra quarter… here’s what we would do

      • Why we wanted to do it

    • Here are the problems we were experiencing/anticipating

Main Things to Focus on (decreasing priority)

• (1) Movement/Positioning - IN PROGRESS

• (1) Documentation - IN PROGRESS

• (1) Functionality - COMPLETE

• (2) Stabilization with Concrete (only if we have time) - COMPLETE

• (3) Cable Management

Upcoming Goals

Weeks 6-8

• Create spools with general wood components - COMPLETE

• Test positioning accuracy with 4 stepper motors and current code - IN PROGRESS

  • Construction tape or mesh for grid

  • Continue testing and reiterating code

• Address the issues seen in Proof of Concept - COMPLETE

• Assemble UTM and cables to plate - COMPLETE

Weeks 9-10

• Motorize end effectors for functionality - COMPLETE

• Electronic Cable management (tentative - pending progress on positional accuracy testing) - ON HOLD

  • Find and attach device to neatly manage power cables for the vacuum and camera upon UTM

  • Tensioned Cable Reel or similar solution

• CAD of custom parts and documentation - IN PROGRESS

• Ensure that component level designs work before we begin and finalize documentation - COMPLETE

Budget Remaining: $1400.68