This week I worked on the final presentation and the analysis for our design report. We had our in lab demos on Monday, and we showcased our completed robotics simulation. I am aiming to finish as much content for the report as possible before next week, so we can use the next week to work on our two videos. We are on track as per our schedule, and next week we should be finalizing our design report and working on…
This week marks the end of building our simulation and the start of analysis. Claire and I both finished the chassis and Z-axis parts and I integrated the parts. Below is our completed robotics system: I started looking at the possible analysis we can do for some trade studies. The first design decision is the choice of material for our vertical support rods. I first applied the appropriate materials to all the components on the gantry and used Fusion 360…
This week I worked on the rest of the timing belt assembly for the Y-axis, and the full chassis frame. I added features such as the camera mount, the lights for a stable lighting condition, and the compartments for the sorted resistors. I have also begun to integrate the Z components that Claire has been working on. Here is the progress I’ve made so far: Since I’ve had a lot of time to work on capstone during this quarantine, we’ve…
This week I continued to work on the XY gantry simulation. Being more familiar with Fusion360 now, I worked more on simulation movements and enforcing joints. I now have fully completed the X components along with the timing belt and steppers. The gantry currently totals to 55 components with 131 bodies. Here is the animation of moving along the X-axis. And along the Y-axis: Per the schedule, I am on track to finishing the gantry this week and I will…
After settling back in Hong Kong with my 14 day quarantine, I had some time to do a more in-depth exploration of Fusion360. I followed several tutorials and started to get the hang of Fusion360’s fundamentals. Claire and I had a discussion whether we should switch to simulating a robotic arm instead of the gantry approach for a few reasons. The gantry approach was what we were going to do in implementation before the virus hit. We were familiar with…
This week has been spent planning and rescoping our project under these new working circumstances. Originally, I was responsible for most of the mechanical part assembly, but obviously this is now not possible since we won’t have access to Techspark and Claire and I will be working from the other side of the world. We spent this week exploring the different CAD simulation software we could use to simulate the design of our mechanical system. I looked into Solidworks, I…
We were informed that the gantry actually arrived a few weeks ago but was never put in the system, but at least now we know when to verify when parts arrive. Before spring break, I spent the week customizing our parts and making any necessary adjustments to fit the gantry better. I also printed more parts for the remainder of the assembly, and went to get the nuts and bolts needed for assembly. Everything should be all ready to go…
This past week I focused on manufacturing the parts needed for the XY gantry and researching what parts to use for our Z-axis. I 3D printed the mounts but our rails still have not arrived yet so I could not move onto assembly like I planned to. We have decided to use an off-the-shelf part for our Z-axis to minimize the risk and time it would take to test a 3D printed rack-and-pinion part. We have also set up the…
After the research and planning we did last week, we put in the order for XY rails with the dimensions that would work with our project. I also spent the week finalizing the 3D printed components that we would need to mount our rails to our chassis, and mount the timing belt and servos. I printed the parts on Thursday night in Techspark, so hopefully when the rails arrive on Monday I will have all the parts ready to start…
This week I focused on researching different solution approaches for our robotic claw with Claire. In particular, we looked at some DIY claw machine projects powered by Arduinos and found them promising. We will be using stepper motors and an x-y gantry for the positioning of the claw. However, the up-down motion of these projects mostly used a pulley system that looks more flimsy than what we want, so we are now researching a different approach for that particular axis…