Project Methodology

Based on the five phases ANSI standard for the Project Management Process Life Cycle, the following section of the report details the process the team followed in completing the project.

Initiation Phase:

As the current global economy demands more and superior solutions to automate daily tasks, this project intends to deliver a small metallic robot arm capable of performing precise but simple movements to complete a programmed task. With a defined business case within the project portfolio capabilities of the team, the team established the objectives, the baseline to start and the feasibility according to the resources available. In the initial phase of the project, several sketches were made to bring to life the idea of building a robot (Figures 2 and 3). A series of productive brainstorming sessions were conducted to address this first milestone, the project start. By using the sketches as a powerful tool to conceptualize ideas and after analyzing the possible alternatives the team decided to build a SCARA robot (Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm) because its mechanical configuration is more reliable than any other robot configuration and requires fewer mechanisms and actuators. Those factors were relevant in the decision-making since the main obstacles throughout the project were time and budget.

Planning Phase:

The team invested a significant effort in this stage because it would determine the success or failure of the project. The plan was built according to the documents needed for this phase, which included the scope statement, the Gantt chart, the earned value analysis (EVA), the budget, and the risk assessment along with a mitigation plan. Those were the main tools used to manage each step to follow. The milestone during this phase was delivering a solid design (Figures 4 and 5) and procuring the parts for building the robot. The team knew that developing a reliable design would be critical to minimizing risks in further stages. As a result, a detailed design was made assuring that mechanical defects and electrical faults were avoided. One of the main decisions to fulfilling that goal was choosing aluminum and steel as the main materials to build the robot. Those materials have the strength necessary to rely on repetitive tasks with minimum maintenance. Also, medium-quality electrical actuators were chosen based on the idea that enough torque with low voltages would be needed as well as low electrical noise. To control the robot, an Arduino Uno board was selected according to the budget available, which was limited.

During this project, the quality standards, risk assessment, and mitigation plan all hinged on the budget but due to a thorough analysis from the beginning, the design was completed on time and the parts arrived as expected.

Execution Phase:

In this phase, the milestone was assembling the robot. The team focused on the details and tried to see the big picture while each small part was added. This was the stage for paying special attention to quality assurance because the robot needed to be calibrated in each joint (Figure 6). That was accomplished by using a digital caliper and a torque wrench meter to adjust the bolts to the appropriate value. Thanks to these tools, the team discovered that the parts were not as accurate as they expected. As a result, a significant amount of manual machining had to be done to critical parts related to the servos supports in the shoulder and the elbow.

On the other hand, in this stage, the electrical wiring and the electronics were built. To avoid further electrical issues, all the connections were made with a high-quality Hakko soldering iron and isolated with heat-shrinkable tubes (Figure 8) to be reliable. Also, the heat dissipation was minimized by using independent circuits with power transistors for each actuator plus a big heatsink manually machined (Figure 7).

Controlling Phase:

After putting in place all the necessary care during the execution phase, the team put the robot to the test at this stage. The milestone was testing the robot. Also, controlling the budget, the schedule and the risk led to start thinking about the performance developed until now.

The main task was creating the basic programs to test all the actuators separately first (Figures 9, 10, 11, and 12) and then developing a fully functional program to integrate all the robot capabilities in one task. That was achieved by several days of researching and developing instructions and routines that were constantly put to the test. At the same time, due to the mechatronic nature of a robot, all the mechanisms, circuits and electronics were tested with each routine code. This stage could be characterized as the most challenging in this project because the robot is using the PID (Proportional Integral Derivative) control algorithm for controlling the z-axis which is the same method used in industrial automation. This algorithm has a complexity that requires time to be understood and then written as software.

Closing Phase:

As a final stage, the team would review the budget, the schedule, and the scope in order to have it completed. The milestone would be completing the project. That would be accompanied by this final report, understanding, and documenting the lessons learned and finalizing any pending contracted services. At this point, the robot would be ready to be presented and evaluated as a final project product. This means that an assembled SCARA robot mounted on its work cell with a full task programmed would be delivered (Figure 13). The task programmed in the robot consists of simulating the assembly of a metallic piece with metric bolts that are removed from a hole and inserted in another hole. The team has chosen the last date available to present the product to the management in order to have all the time possible to refine the programming of the robot.

Individual Content:

Although both team members were well qualified to perform any of the tasks demanded by the project, they decided to distribute the job according to time, logistics and personal interests.

Rodrigo Dei

He was in charge of mechanical design, electronics, and assembly. As a multidisciplinary electronics technician, he is passionate about designing robots, which was his main reason to join this program in Canada. He also collaborated in developing some documents for the project, as well as delivering the base code for the first testing after the assembly.

As a personal learning experience, he values the enrichment acquired throughout the project, not only regarding its technical aspects but also for sharing this experience with peers in a multicultural environment with students and professors from all over the world.

It is worth mentioning that he considers himself fortunate for partnering this project with someone such as Tareq, who was a remarkable project manager and programmer in this endeavour.

Tareq Badra

Tareq was responsible for general electrical design and the programming of the Arduino. In addition, Tareq handled most of the project management part. On this project, Tareq handled the part that he more likely will handle in his coop and hopefully in a future job. He likes to program and work on electrical designs that are part of a big project. This project gave him a taste of what kind of project awaits him in the industrial automation field where he plans to pursue his career.

Tareq feels lucky that he had the chance to work with Rodrigo on this project. Rodrigo is an excellent mechanical designer with rich imagination and attention to detail. Also, he has exceptional determination to solve the most difficult issues. Without it, the team would not be able to finish the project with such success.