Class #10

Time is getting short! We addressed the fact in our company meeting at the beginning of today's class that after this class there is only one more class in which to build the bot since the last class is dedicated to presentation of the robots. With that being said we moved right into production by nailing down a layout for the components on the main deck of the bot so that the fabrication team (myself and Bryan) could really get to work finishing the body construction so that we can get our components mounted and begin the calibration. We began by constructing our upper deck (basically a housing) for the bot which we designed in an 'L' shape with the recessed portion as the location of the robotic arm on the lower deck. To attach this upper deck we used a series of stand-offs to create posts which we situated in the most load bearing points of the structure. We also drilled some holes in the lower deck which will be used to run wires from beneath the bot up to their corresponding phidget controllers. The last element of the construction that we worked on during this class was were the front and rear bumpers which was brought to a halt when the blade on the portable band saw snapped off. After speaking with Frank, I felt that since I was the one using the saw, I took it on myself to get the blade repaired or get a replacement before next class, hopefully everything works out ok!

Class #9

Back at the grind! We continued with the construction of our bot today, focusing predominantly on the layout of the entire chassis, as well as how the components will all fit into our design. One of the most time consuming tasks of today's class was drilling holes in our main deck to allow the deck itself to sit flush against the aluminium chassis, I had to toy around a lot with the size and positioning of the hole to ensure a snug fit. Once those adjustments were made, Renee, our project manager soldered the wire leads onto our DC motors which will be driving the four wheels of the bot and we then mounted the motors to the frame and attached the wheels to the motors.....we now have a rolling chassis. What was even better was that during all of the fabrication that took place today, Mike, our programmer, had coded the wireless PCB components and DC motor controller which allowed us to lay some components on top of the deck and with a DC adapted we were able to give the bot its first test drive....SUCCESS!! The main troubleshooting issue we had to address at the end of the class was that we discovered that our wheels were mounted backwards, and therefore tended to fall off, however we fixed all the wheels and the bot is now much sturdier. 

Class #8

When today's class started we had a quick plan of attack from Frank and then we got to work with a team meeting and then moved onto design and fabrication of our bot's chassis, while Mike got down to business on our programming and interface. By the end of the class we had our chassis pretty much completely constructed as well as our robotic arm. The experience of building the chassis was great because I got the chance to use some tools such as a drill press and electronic hack saw in order to prepare the angle aluminum and flat bar for the chassis. It was a point of pride when all of the preparations made to the aluminum fit together perfectly on the first try. Looking forward to next class when we will be able to get some components mounted on the bot, and get ready to start testing. So far so good!

Class #7

Today's class began with an introduction to our new instructor Mr. Frank Shapleigh, after we made our way through the introduction process we immediately started into our project introduction. Once our task was presented to the group we were notified of our groups and had our first group meetings, during which we delegated the jobs of our team and tried to conceptualize how the project was going to go. We came up with one rough drawing of how the bot might look, however it is still quite up in the air. The last thing that we did today was got a start on constructing the robotic arm component of the bot, and as a team we had a clinic with Frank in regards to some general construction tips and techniques, we were also presented with a bunch of our materials for the build.

Class #6

Half Way Home!!! By the end of this class we will have completed half of this course. Therefore today was our last class with Corey as our instructor, even though we just met him! The first half of the class was dedicated to completing a CEQ for the course and Corey, follwed by test # 2, which much like the first I left feeling pretty confident which is always a good thing. Once the test was finished we moved on to some housekeeping in a sense that there were a few activities that Corey wanted us to have completed before the end of the class, therefore we focused on these instead of following the regularly scheduled activities. These involved using the rotating base and servo motor controller in order to use the robot gripper arm, as well as the webcam. After getting everything constructed, we managed to get everything working, except for the final task which was to control these components using the mini joystick as an input device. We got a short start but ran out of time so I guess we will have to figure it out next week, so that it can hopefully be integrated into our final project. And that brings us to the half way mark, looking forward to next week when we will meet our new, and final instructor of the tech program! Until then......

Class #5

Here we are again, beginning of week 3, almost half way through the course already! Seems crazy! Today's class began differently than we have been used to thus far in that we all started a new activity at the same time. We all got new kits to use in order to build a small robot which was quite exciting. We had built a simpler version of this bot in one class before however today's bot had a web cam and wireless capabilities so that it could drive around the floor!! Once the bot was constructed and coded we had to hardwire it in order to test and make sure it was set up properly and troubleshoot any problems, this way we would not drain the battery pack. Once everything was a go we connected  to the wireless IP address designated to our particular bot and attempted a wireless run however, there were issues with the battery pack and we were limited to the length of the adapter cord which we connected later.
Once we were finished with our bot activity we returned to our activities which we had started on last class.

Class #4

A sigh of relief!

     At the beginning of this class I won't lie that I was feeling quite overwhelmed. Mike and I had let ourselves fall behind in our progress of the activities, which is a situation which we do not often find ourselves. To add insult to injury, Mike had let me know that he was not able to make it to class today which meant that I had to take charge of everything and try and get us up to speed! I began with the RFID components, where a new phidget controller was implemented as well as new input devices, it was quite interesting how the RFID signals were able to travel and provide a textual display, however it was even better when Wild E. Cyotee showed up to offer a little confidence booster!

     Next I moved onto the DC motor control, where I first used a lamp to test the variable controls of brightness, which when swapped out for a Servo motor, translated over to motor speed and direction control using the horizontal scroll bar. As a progression of this motor control, I hooked up two motors and constructed the bot using the kit provided, and implemented a joystick control on the interface and was introduced to the first piece of 'robotics' that I have yet built (pretty exciting). The bot was able to drive forward, backward and turn left and right, by altering negative and positive values in the coding the joystick was properly calibrated.

     Next I moved on to servo motor controlling, the first activity was to identify which motor in the picture was not a true servo motor, which I deemed to be the one in the clear housing, since there was a lack of a potentiometer which is a key element of the function of a servo motor. The potentiometer allows the motor to determine which position it starts in and depending on the inputs, where and how far it has to move.

     The final activities worked with some different sensors which worked with the new 888 phidget controller which we were issued today, these included a temperature sensor which was quite neat because of its accuracy, by simply wrapping my hand around the sensor I was able to see a rise in the temperature and then after blowing cold air on it, the temperature again immediately dropped. The last was the potentiometer, which basically tracked motion in a rotational manner. By implementing a y=mx+b equation we were able to calibrate the device to work on a cm basis and were therefore use it as a tool of measurement which was quite interesting.
By the end of the class I was able to breath a sigh of relief, because even though I had not completely caught up, I was able to make up a lot of time and get us within reach. I am looking forward to next class when I hope we will be able to continue with this pace and get back on track before our next test.
See you on Tuesday!

Class #3

Back again!!!
             These posts just keep on piling up! We had our third class today, during which we started of with our first test of the course, I must admit there were no surprises, very fair and content based. I both hope and feel that I got a pretty good mark so I will be anxious to see how I did. After the test we continued on with our activities from the course website. Last day we left off with non-contact sensing devices, so today we picked up in the same topic but with a photo transistor, and an infared diode which we hooked up together so that the infared diode could be used in order to activate the photo transistor. A neat fact about the infared light emitted from the diode was that it could not be detected by the naked eye but could be seen if you looked at the diode through a cell phone camera, after trying this I agree! A second interesting point was the everyday application of this technology in garage doors, this is often used to act as a safety feature so that people are not caught under the door.
      The rest of the activities were done with a passive infared sensor, and a hall effect switch. the infared sensor simply detected motion, while the hall effect switch was activated by the presence of a magnet. The interface had a red and green light display rather than a schematic of a switch being open and closed.
Until next time....