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During my first quarter at UCLA, I participated in a hands-on engineering design course focused on designing, manufacturing, and eventually competing with) a 1.25-lb. combat robot as part of a team of three.
I designed several iterations of a 3D printed chassis as well as a horizontal spinner-type weapon. Once assembled, I took the lead on soldering all of our off-the-shelf electronics and assembling our weapon.
We encountered and overcame several obstacles along the way. For instance, we ended up having to reprint our chassis a class-record 8 times due to various issues with screw hole placement, teaching me the importance of prototyping early and often.
We were fairly successful in our final competition, with our bot lasting through most preliminary rounds and losing during a semifinal. A video is linked below.
I am now employed as an instructor for this course, training two new co-instructors this year while refining our curriculum to better teach Solidworks and machining skills to an audience of primarily freshmen.
Our first chassis and motor mount.
Second iteration with thinner walls, as well as weapon and drivetrain integrated.
Third iteration. We lengthened our chassis and added triangular supports for the weapon. We ensured that we were well under the mass limit, ensuring room for wires.
One of our initial chassis prints along with our motor mounts and weapon (without mounting hardware).
Another print of our chassis showing the slot pattern we placed on the back half. This helped us control the position of our weapon motor after assembly, ensuring that the pulley used to spin it would always remain tight.
A video of our bot (purple and yellow) at the final competition!
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