For my Mechatronics class my team and I were assigned to build an automated can crusher. The crusher is to be loaded with 10 uncrushed cans and then output 10 crushed cans in under 2 minutes. The following video demonstrates our can crushing device.
Our team still needs to solve the issue of loading cans into our crusher through some sort of hopper device, but for now, we are satisfied with our can crusher.
A few tech specs:
6″ throw, 1.5″ bore diameter pneumatic Cylinder
Operating Pressure: 100 psi
Control is achieved using a 4-way solenoid valve paired with a L298 based motor driver.
An Arduino Mega provides the smarts.
During the previous semester, as part of a class project, we built urban search and rescue robots. We built the robots using the LEGO NXT set. For our robot I built a custom pan-tilt mechanism to mount the camera we were provided with.
The pan-tilt used two servos and a custom microntroller board to interface the servos with the NXT. The controller board also allowed for LEDs (used for illumination) to be turned on and off.
We controlled the robot over a bluetooth link via joystick. It turns out that the NXT brick times out after 15 min no activity and that an open bluetooth does not count as activity.
In short, this project ruined my childhood and made me hate LEGOs. The constraints of the project made it very difficult to build an effective robot. However, a simple combination of wheels and treads let a build a robot to fit the constraints.
As part of a class project, for Micro/Nano Robotics, we’re building an ornithoper. The above video shows an example of the flapping mechanism.
For this project we will be building an ornithopter that uses passive wing pitching to increase the amount of total lift. As the video shows, the flapping mechanism is complete. The wings should be built within the next few days.
We’ve mounted Stairbot in a hanging position so we could perform some testing on its legs. We’ve discovered some issues with our servos, and we keep blowing some of them up. We’re not sure if it’s an issue with the design, or if the servos are bad.
A video of the legs cycling through some motions:
We also have some pictures of the hanging setup:
Friday afternoon we were able to complete the first of four legs of Stairbot. We were hoping to complete more than that, but, we currently only have enough servos for one leg and we’re waiting on the rest to arrive. However, in the meantime, we will work on being able to control this one leg so when we add more, it will be easy to develop gaits. To control Stairbot, we’re going to be tethering an Arduino to a computer for extra computational power, to allow us to perform inverse kinematic calculations.
More updates to follow as more parts come in.
Stairbot is getting closer and closer to completion. The above render is what the final version should look like. We’ve decided to laser cut a lot of acrylic to build most of the leg and body structure.
We’ve ordered all of our electronics, and we should be receiving them soon. Then we can start actually programming and getting gaits set up. Our goal is to have the construction mostly completed by the end of the month, and start working on some basic motion control.
Below are some images from the build process.
I’m in a class called Introduction to Robotics. In this class we have labs where we make robots to do things using the LEGO NXT Mindstorms kits. (Part of) Our current assignment is to make a robot that can follow a fairly complex line. In our team, I’m the Mechanical Engineer, so I built the robot. Our Computer Scientist, Rich, wrote a really sweet line following program based on the general algorithm our group came up with.
I’m not going to reveal the black magics he used in his program, or our general algorithm, but, from the video you can probably deduce the general idea. The line it follows is complex, containing both a 90 degree bend and a hairpin. As you can also see in the video, the robot could follow this line indefinitely until its batteries die.
I managed to get a gallery of a step-by-step build of the MicroColony/Build18 sensor board uploaded. This post details the sensor board itself a bit better.
We plan on building a better one that uses a multiplexor to allow us to have more than 5 sensors on the board.
Lately I’ve been really really busy, so I haven’t had a chance to keep updated on everything. I’ve managed to do quite a bit lately, and in the next few days I’ll be posting updates on everything I’ve done.
First off, Build 18 has come and gone. We were able to get everything mostly built, but part delays kept us from finishing our micro-colony. I’ll be posting about the finished product, with pictures, soon. We’ve already started work on redesigning it to be better. Hopefully by the end of the semester we’ll have a nicely built finished product.
A lot has also happened with Stair bot. We’ve been doing a lot of work machining parts to build the legs. We will be ordering the remainder of our raw materials as well as some electronics. We have also received the remainder of our funding in the form of a SURG grant. The donation for our grant came from Boeing. The pace of work on Stairbot just keeps picking up. Hopefully we’ll have it built and working soon.
I’ve also become head Mechanical Engineer for the RoboClub’s air hockey robot. I’m working on a redesign for it so we can get it up and working. In addition to this I’ve been building some things for some of my classes, for Into Robotics my team built a Rube goldberg machine, I’ll post about that later. And for Micro/Nano Robots my team will be building ornithopters, so I’ll keep updated on those.
Additionally, I’m working on changing some back end stuff of my blog, so things will be changing the way they work, which will make everything nicer I hope.
Tonight we had a game against CCAC. We played really well and it looked like we had a good chance of winning. Unfortunately, we did not win. We lost 6-5. The game was tied for most of it and the lead kept getting swapped back and forth. It wasn’t until 3 or 4 minutes left in the game that they scored their final goal to give them the lead.
We have another game tomorrow against Pitt-Greensburg. It should be a really good game. They are a pretty good team.
