Posted on

Jack’s Status Report for 9/28/2024

This week, I worked on selecting the electrical components for the teleoperated gripper system. I focused on all the subsystems besides the gripper, since the team is still working on how best to measure force at the grippers and produce intuitive force-feedback. However, I have managed to lock down the BOM for all the electrical components for arm movement, including XYZ axis motors and wrist tile motors. These selections are based on quantitative use case requirements such as payload, precision and speed. I have also selected mechanical hardware such as aluminum extrusions, brackets, linear slides, and lead screws.

See my component selection notes

 

Posted on

Team Status Report for 9/28/2024

Normal Report

• What are the most significant risks that could jeopardize the success of theproject? How are these risks being managed? What contingency plans are ready?

As of now, the greatest risk to the project is finishing up the design process and ordering parts. I hope there are little to no changes after the design review next week, so that we don’t need to spend more time designing. The team has been working hard this week designing and preparing for the design review in order to minimize risk of redesigning. The team is committed to working extra hours if needed.

• Were any changes made to the existing design of the system (requirements,block diagram, system spec, etc)? Why was this change necessary, what costsdoes the change incur, and how will these costs be mitigated going forward?

The camera FOV was switched from 90 degrees to 78 degrees because I had trouble finding a good 90 degree FOV camera that fit the more important specifications. This change comes at a cost of needing to raise the camera higher off the table which our camera stand will account for.

• Provide an updated schedule if changes have occurred.

No scheduling changes were made.

• This is also the place to put some photos of your progress or to brag about acomponent you got working

*Nothing for now…

+ the Status Report 2 assignment

Please write a paragraph or two describing how the product solution you are designing will meet a specified need…

Part A: … with respect to considerations of public health, safety or welfare. Note: The term ‘health’ refers to a state of well-being of people in both a physiological and psychological sense. ‘Safety’ is the absence of hazards and/or physical harm to persons. The term ‘welfare’ relates to the provision of the basic needs of people. –By Jack He

Our product is intended to promote health and safety by putting them out of harm’s way.  Lab environments can contain a wide range of hazards: flammables, explosives, toxic vapors, bio-waste… In addition to the obvious risk of severe injury, many substances found in a lab have negative long term health effects. For example, formaldehyde, commonly used to preserve tissue samples, are linked to neuraldegenerative diseases and cancer. By building a teleoperation interface capable of the fine manipulation tasks performed in a lab, we aim to make it easy for researchers to use our robot to perform these tasks from a safe location. Therefore, this system will promote both health and safety for the community of scientific researchers.

Part B: … with consideration of social factors. Social factors relate to extended social groups having distinctive cultural, social, political, and/or economic organizations. They have importance to how people relate to each other and organize around social interests. — By Zhenghao Jin

The remote-controlled robotic hand I am designing is primarily intended for lab environments, addressing the need for safer and more efficient experimentation. By enabling users to manipulate lab equipment and hazardous solutions remotely, the product minimizes physical risks and ensures a controlled, safe process for delicate or dangerous experiments. This solution is cost-effective and adaptable, making it a valuable tool for a wide range of labs, including those with limited safety resources. It enhances collaboration among researchers by providing a safer and more reliable way to conduct experiments, aligning with the broader goal of improving safety and efficiency in scientific research.

Part C: … with consideration of economic factors. Economic factors are those relating to the system of production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. — By Leland Mersky

Our product does not nicely meet a specific need with consideration of economic factors, as our product mainly meets the needs for public health and safety. The purpose of the robotic arm is to handle possibly dangerous chemicals to perform common tasks done in a chemistry lab. That being said, I can’t think of a way how this project affects the production, distribution, or consumption of goods and services.

Posted on

Cary’s Status Report for 9/28/2024

Accomplishments This Week: This week, I focused on updating the design of the remote controller for the project. I developed and finalized detailed schematics, capturing the design from multiple viewpoints to ensure clarity and thoroughness. I made significant progress in decision-making, finalizing all aspects except for the method to simulate weight, which remains under discussion.

Progress Evaluation: My progress is on schedule, with no significant delays. Although we changed the design of the remote controller a lot, I am moving steadily toward the next project milestones.

Next Week’s Deliverables: For the upcoming week, I plan to start the ordering process with the TA for the decided components. Additionally, I will compile a comprehensive list of material sources available, ensuring that everything necessary for the next phase of the project is accounted for.

This will help maintain the project timeline and ensure steady progress.

Check the new diagram:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eYKGII9tAvMpuPOwXikJ_ms9G_d58fbl/view?usp=drive_link

Posted on

Leland’s Status Report for 9/28/2024

This week, I have finalized a design plan for the camera station. I made some calculations to estimate what specifications would be necessary for the camera and the camera stand. I also picked out a specific webcam and camera stand that will satisfy my specification requirements.

I am on track, as I have a complete design and almost complete bill of materials. This is the goal that I had in last week’s status report.

Next week, there will be design review presentations where my team will receive design feedback for our project. By the end of next week, I want to use that feedback to finalize all our design plans and start ordering parts.

My work this week

Posted on

Jack’s Status Report for 9/21/2024

This week, I conducted some research into how best to implement the gripping mechanism, as well as the robot arm upon which the gripper is mounted.

I spent a lot of time trying to design a simple enough mechanism that could control force at the grippers effectively. What I wanted to avoid was to simply attach a motor’s output shaft rigidly to the grippers. This is because it will be very difficult to control force precisely when the gripper makes contact with a solid object. This was solved by attaching a torsional spring mechanism to the output shaft, so that the force output is a linear function of the motor’s position. 

I also spent time to size the motors needed to actuate various parts of the robot arm. I came to a decision by researching similar mechisms in 3D printers and laser cutters. For systems that are close in size, the most common option is a NEMA 23 stepper, so I decided to go with those.

Another challenge was to find a low-cost solution for precise linear movements. We needed linear movement over an area the size of a lab workbench, and many linear rails at that size were too pricey. I ended up finding a solution based on attaching wheelcarts to standard aluminimum extrusions, with an overall cost below $50.

After some discussion with my teammates, I drew up a preliminary mechanical design for the system based on the above considerations. Overall, I think I am on schedule, as I have another week to design the arm. I have a clear idea of what the robot arm hardware will look like, and have also started the detailed hardware design using OnShape, a CAD tool. It took some time to learn it, so I have not had the chance to complete the detailed design yet. While I have managed to identify the type and size of components needed, I will also need to shop for  the best option on the market and submit them using the purchase form.

Sept 20 design notes – arm

Posted on

Cary’s Status Report for 9/21/2024

This week, We meet to discuss the general design of our robotic hand and remote controller. We also talked about our algorithm in the big picture.

For my work, I finish the schematics draft for the remote controller. There is a PDF uploaded including the schismatic. a simple representation of what information is transmitted between devices, and a one-sentence summary of our algorithm for input data.

The schematic draft represents our final idea of how the remote hand should look. We have several different ideas abandoned along the way to reach this one. The records of previous ideas are not organized. If necessary, I will organize them to upload later.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JudQcw4ZLqIQBpjP6MZmLUYli48eiYFK/view?usp=sharing

Posted on

Leland’s Status Report for 9/21/2024

This week, I researched more thoroughly what will be needed for the computer vision part of the project. I have looked at the pros and cons for different types of cameras like a USB webcam vs a stereo camera. I have also started to look through OpenCV libraries to get comfortable with them. Lastly, I modified the website a little to make it look nicer.

We are on schedule. This week and next week are for design and ordering parts.

I hope to have an almost complete design and list of parts for the camera/laptop station part of our project.

Posted on

Team Status Report for 9/21/2024

 

At this point in the course, the biggest risk to the project is organization and communication within the team. We all we need to be doing our parts in the individual work, but we have to come together to plan for each week to come. These risks are being managed by our team’s iron will and dedication. We make sure to meet multiple times a week, so that we can stay on top of our progress.

We’ve had some discussion throughout the week on the design of our project. There have been minor changes, but we’ve really just been fleshing out our design more rather than making changes. At this point, we all have a good understanding of the project as a whole. This week, we started to work on the different sub-systems of the project individually.

No schedule changes have been made. Overall, we are making our final, initial design decisions and have started forming a list of parts to order. The goal is to have a close to complete list of parts by the end of next week.