I was able to finish the CAD for the pumps, which is quite important for the overall project, and a lot more specifically for the design review. I also worked quite a lot this week, indeed, on the design review. I worked on the implementation side of the design review, and was able to individually place screenshots of the work that I did in the design review such that I could describe each system in a more detailed fashion. As such, we ended up being right at the edge of the max quantity of pages, but we should be under the quantity limit for each individual section!
I was also, thankfully, able to work with some physical parts this week. I was able to retrieve most of the electronic guts for the Rover, which will be important as we continue to fabricate it over the next week. The most important mechanism for me to test was the suction mechanism. I wanted to make sure that with the motorized pumps, we would be able to lift our target weight. When I got the pump in the initial part delivery, I found that it could only push air out, not pull air in. After I spent awhile inspecting the inside of the pump, I figured out how I could add a 3D printed part and essentially add a suction input. A picture:
The blue plastic part above is the 3D printed part. Though this did add some suction, it wasn’t nearly enough to hold my iPad, which is our weight goal. I was able to source an original plastic heading for the DC pump that had the suction in-built, and with just two pumps, we were able to lift an iPad, our target weight! The video.
Though this is good, we are still a bit behind on fabrication. We have cut time on other things, such as with the OAK-D SR, which should keep us on track, but we’ll have to put a bit more time this week to meet our fabrication goal. I hope by next week to have the completed Rover; if not, the Robot Arm fabricated.