I spent the majority of the week figuring out how to increase the speed on the motors controlled by the Arduino and fixed the vibration issue that would occur with them. The movement produced by the gantry system in the xy plane involved a considerable amount of vibration and slow movement. In order to fix this, I had to modify the C++ code for the Arduino so that the commands sent to the motors were more frequent to keep the motors from stopping at each step that they would execute in terms of their movement (they’re stepper motors). Additionally, I started implementing the code to control the Z axis, in this case the end effector motor. We don’t have a third cable to control the motor so I have to wait for it to arrive in order to verify that it works in conjunction with the other two motors of the gantry system.
My progress is currently on schedule.
For next week, I plan on finishing the code to execute a complete pick up and drop sequence for specific trash types. I also plan on programming the conveyor belt to move once built.