I was able to finish up implementing all of the subsystems to the new guide rail system for lifting the RPLiDAR including the stepper motor with threaded rod and tilt mechanism to obtain a more in-depth scan of the room. I then integrated all of the subsystems to make up the final product. We were able to test the functionality of the system which worked mostly to our expectation. I spent this week tweaking the subsystems to improve stability, mainly by restricting the tilt of the scanner to stay on the y-axis alone and switching the motor out to one with better torque. This week I will work on testing the final result as well as work on the deliverables for the coming week. I am on track according to what we wanted to have done by this time.
A lot of the work needed to implement my part of the project was rooted in knowledge from MechE. Luckily, I got quite a bit of the knowledge from taking classes in IDeATe, such as laser cutting and other general woodworking. This, alongside extensive research and videos, allowed me to build the first implementation of a lifting mechanism, the scissor lift. This didn’t go as planned, since I failed to consider things such as friction as the scissor arms slid across the base and the effect of the weight on the motor. I abandoned this idea in favor of a more sturdy approach involving guide rails. I spoke with a professor, watched videos, and read information online to help better my understanding and account for factors I initially wasn’t considering. Through the development of this system, I feel I picked up knowledge on a lot of little things regarding woodworking, general assembly, use and applications of a variety of components (tee nuts, bearings, dowels, random orbital sanders, etc) as well as a lot of factors that affect the structure, reliability and sturdiness of buildings.