This past week I prioritized finishing the manipulator design and ordering the parts. I also finished the CAD mockup, including the first prototype of a 3D printed mount for the electronics. It will freely move vertically on top of the manipulator to account for objects of different heights/thicknesses. I’ll 3D print this mount and test it once the ordered parts have arrived and the rest of the manipulator is put together.
Though I’m still behind on my tasks from the roadmap, a lot of future time was allocated to debugging the hardware, characterizing the working prototype, and designing a new version with a suction cup manipulator (instead of just a friction tip); this time may as well be slack time that’s instead used for this prototype. We’ve gone ahead and ordered the air pump, tubing, and suction cup with the rest of our parts. The suction cup is the same material and size (silicone for high coeff. of friction, 13mm diameter to fit behind a dime or similar coin) as we would’ve made the friction tip, so we will simply test the prototype with and without activating suction instead of needing to build an entirely new prototype/add-on. I believe this will be a massive time save, and don’t foresee any issues with the current design. I’ve uploaded the solidworks assembly+relevant files to github.
Besides working on the design and prototype, I’ve worked with my team on the design review presentation slides. I’ll be presenting on either Monday or Wednesday, and the tentative plan is to finish a draft early enough tonight or tomorrow so that our TA can look it over and give advice.