Week 3

Project Update:

4/20/17

Team 13 has had a great start to the project due to finding an old robotic assembly in the lab room. The first goal we had was to gain motor control for this robotic assembly which required replacing two potentiometers. This required a little fabrication work to make mounting brackets, but this is now complete and we can fully control the up and down/in and out motion of our robot. Currently, we have components for our “Block Puncher” being 3D printed and we are sourcing a solenoid from an electric staple gun. Once this assembly is complete we will be very close to having a completely built robot.

Meanwhile, Jeremy Willcock has been playing around with code and the electronics that I have been purchasing so that he can get a head start on the code. We have sourced/purchased the following so far.

· Arduino Mega

· Potentiometers for motor control

· Motor Shield

· All motors for the robot except we still need a servo for controlling the pivot motion at the base of the robot. I am currently working on this.

· Relay board for solenoid since it will require 110V wall power. (converts AC to DC in its own circuitry).

· IR sensors

From an electrical stand point, we have not had to many issues, especially since we have now successfully gain motor control with potentiometers. We are currently more concerned with finishing the mechanical system, such as the “Block Puncher” and the pivot it will connect to at the end of the robot arm. That, along with the pivot at the base still needs to be connected to a motor or servo which we are still discussing. Once the mechanical system is finished, all the electrical components can be attached and set up.

We have done many bench tests with the motors and pots and the IR sensors with test code to determine what is possible and see how the components behave. This has also helped us brush up on our coding skills and gives us insight on what the final program that we develop might look like.

Our goal for week 4 of the term is to pretty much have the entire mechanical system built. If this is achieved, we will have week 5-10 to work on hooking up the electrical components and begin trying to control our robot.