brainstorming

Meeting 5

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February 9, 2018
3:00 pm
Hitchcock Hall Room 214

Meeting Agenda:

  1. Complete Exploration 1 while becoming familiar with coding the Proteus, the CdS cell, bump switches, and motors

Meeting Notes:

The whole team was present. This meeting overlapped with Exploration 1, where the team learned how to program some useful things on the Proteus using a basic pre-made robot. Dean and Meghan set up the robot and connected the motor, CdS cell, and servo motor to the respective ports. Tom and Meghan explored the code for using a CdS cell to determine light color. They also wrote the code for controlling a servo motor’s angle based on the CdS cell value. Shyon and Dean then took over and wrote the code for the robot’s navigation based on microswitches. The picture below depicts the path the robot needed to follow based on this code.

During Shyon and Dean’s coding adventure, Tom and Meghan discussed the appendages for the team’s robot. They went into the course room and looked at the wrench, the buttons, and the fuel pump. They officially decided to use a forklift on one side of the robot and a rotating mechanism on the other to accomplish the tasks. Tom took some measurements of the mock robot for future reference and for the team’s mock-up.

Future Actions: 

  1. Meet up to start the cardboard mock-up

Meeting 3

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February 4, 2018
5:00 pm
Hitchcock Hall Room 324

Meeting Agenda:

  1. Complete design matrices
  2. Evaluate best robot idea

Meeting Notes:

Meghan, Dean, and Shyon got together to work on design matrices and compile their ideas into one document. Meghan and Dean created the design matrices. Remotely, Tom came up with some SolidWorks mockups of the best possible design concepts. Shyon later analyzed the team’s work and came up with what should be the best design.

Future Actions:

  1. Compile work from meeting into a document
  2. Discuss best robot design and how to build it
  3. Determine best way to split up future work
  4. Create a task schedule

Meeting 2

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February 2, 2018
3:00 pm
Hitchcock Hall Room 214

Meeting Agenda: 

  1. Discuss ideas individually brainstormed regarding the chassis, drivetrain, and motors

Meeting Notes:

The team brainstormed basic chassis and drivetrain ideas. They visited the course and discussed possible ways to complete the tasks using one appendage. After talking about different styles of arms, forklifts, and claws, the team decided a rotating forklift would work best because it could accomplish all of the tasks, but would be expensive, heavy, and difficult to implement.

The team also discussed possible motors to use and looked at the FEH Motors Graph. They came to the conclusion that the ACRONAME Motor had the best torque-speed curve, but after looking at a sample motor, realized that it would be difficult to use, and that the IGWAN and other motors could be implemented to work.

Future Actions: 

  1. Create design matrices based on different possible robot combinations
  2. Evaluate best robot combinations

Meeting 1

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January 31, 2018
3:00 pm
Hitchcock Hall Room 214

Meeting Agenda: 

  1. Meet each other!

Meeting Notes: 

Meghan, Dean, and Tom exchanged contact information, but Shyon was not present. The team brainstormed some team name ideas and landed on “Save the Crewbot”, then brainstormed for the poster. The team decided to create the poster using PowerPoint because no one had exceptional artistic skills.

Future Actions:

  1.   Brainstorm ideas for the chassis, drivetrain, and motors to discuss at the next meeting.