Final Problem

Here is my picture to the final idea.

At first I tried to automate and mechanize, but the engineering gnome wasn't with me.

Here is some data that I acquired to show my abilities with this ping pong launcher.

Egg Drop Challenge - Iteration #1

Total Achievements earned : 12

Achievement Justification

Three sketches - Pictures don't lie

Generate list of materials - Our material list included, rubber bands, pipe cleaners, and Styrofoam. Our bonus material was the robotics ball as an exoskeleton.

Materials fit in a printer paper box - No picture but the final project did fit in there.

Material weight - Our materials weigh less than 300 grams. The actual "weight" was 254 grams.

Accuracy - We hit inside the bull's eye! We are the best around.

The design that seemed to work the best was to encase the egg in Styrofoam. Every group that did that had their egg survive. So I would keep our design the same, but instead of having pipe cleaners hold the egg, I would have a Styrofoam block hold it.

Glider Challenge

Design Phase

1. The challenge is to build a glider that flies for longer and goes a further distance than other gliders.

2. The only rule of brainstorming is that their is no rules.
a. First idea would be to make the glider completely one wing, like a hang glider.
b. Second idea would be to make the glider more like an airplane, with some empty space between "wings".

3. The criteria includes created an aircraft to fly for a certain amount of time and distance longer than other gliders. Also, the materials are limited to a few sticks of balsa wood and tissue paper. You may use any adhesive to attach the materials to each other.

4. Sketch solutions


5. The airplane proto-prototype was the best out of the rest of the paper air planes.


Testing.
1. +: Fly far, stay aloft long
Delta: Our glider basically nose dived and broke part of itself.
?: Can we fix it? What went wrong?
"Light Bulb!": The wind was blowing into our glider. If we change our position, our glider would fly further!

2. My goal for the glider was to smoke and defeat all the other gliders!!! Our design was not adjusted, but the launch method was. The way we threw the glider and our position in the wind changed for the better. This would maximize the distance and time our glider flies.

Competition results:

Our glider won and crushed all the other gliders. The only thing that I would change was that our plane would the miss the tree instead of getting stuck in it. Meh.

Machine Control: THE MARBLE SORTER OF DOOM

This was my copy of the Decision Matrix that we made. We decided on Sketch 2 and made that design our experimental product. The sketches are below.
March 25th: This sketch was made by Henry. It features a gate system that lets only one marble through the ramp at a time. A magnet will trap the metal marble before it roll through the rest of the system and it gets knocked off into a bin by a pneumatic pump. A light detector differentiates from the different colored marbles and the wooden marble that doesn't let any light in. Once the signal is read, a gear with bins on it turns to the appropriate bin and the marble is pushed in by a pneumatic pump.

March 25: This sketch was made by David. It once again features a double pneumatic gate that lets only one marble in at a time. It then leads to a gate that stops all colored marbles due to their height. Metal ones and wooden ones go through the gate without stopping. Metal marbles get stuck on a magnet and are pushed off into a bin. Wooden marbles just roll through the system and fall into a bin. The stuck colored marbles are then pushed onto another ramp with a gate and a light sensor. Depending on what color the light sensor reads, an angled pneumatic gate shuts a path and the marble rolls along the gate into a bin.

March 25th: I made this sketch. It has a gate that stops all colored marbles because of their height. A light sensor reads the marble and it causes a gear with the appropriate bin to spin to the marble. A pneumatic pump pushes the marble out. Metal and wooden marbles continue rolling through the gate. A magnet stops the metal marble and a pneumatic pump pushes the marble out. Wooden marbles roll completely through the system.

March 25th: I made this sketch as well. This system has a double gated system that only allows one marble at a time. After that a magnet catches all the metal marbles and a pump pushes it into a bin. The wooden and colored marbles pass that and stop on a light sensor. The reading from the light sensor will make a gear with bins on it line up the correct bin and a pump will push the marble into the bin.

1.
2.3.
These are all pictures to the final solution's programming. I spent most of my time in the building aspect to our final solution, so my explanation will be very watered down. We made use of three subprograms that ran in a loop. Sub program #1 was for the gate system that allowed only one marble in at a time. Sub program 2 operated the marble sorter for the metal and wooden marbles. Sub program 3 controlled the light sensor and the sorter for the colored marbles.

Recollection: I believe that we solved the problem pretty well. For the most part, their are no malfunctions in the system and if something unexpected happens, the system has enough time to recognize the error. However, our system is a bit on the slow side, but it is very efficient. If we could figure out a way to speed the process without making it less efficient then that would be a good goal for next time. Taking all of this in, I believe that we did meet most, if not all of the design requirements.

For the most part, the problems that I encountered in working on a design team were more of a social problem. For example, we thought of two different ways to accomplish something and we couldn't really agree on what to do. However, eventually we finally came to an agreement and integrated our compromise into the system.

The main purpose for this project was to engineer a solution to a repetitive task that could be solved with machines. By doing so, we can cut unnecessary jobs from certain areas to increase profit margins. All in all, it also the tasks could be done faster and with more precision if engineered correctly.

A helping hand: Out of all the people that I would like to recognize, it would most likely be Thomas Luppi. He really assisted with some ideas of his own during the planning stage that really influenced our final design.

Some ideas for Achievements

"Pumped" : Use at least 1 pneumatic pump in your system
"Gears of Sort" : Use at least one gear in your system
"Air Supply": Use only 1 pneumatic pump
"Magnetized" : Use at least 1 magnet in your system
"Blazing Fast" : Your system completes its task in under a minute.

Since Pneumatics were in short supply, I thought that using an achievement that rewards you for using less will encourage others to use less of the rare and holy pneumatic parts.

Activity 3.1.7 Machine Control Design part 1

What? Why?

Create a Delivery Vehicle Control system that can travel in a straight line back and forth. The system needs to be able controlled by input from a potentiometer and it must include a safety shut off if it travels to far in either direction. This is useful to transport various items from point a to point b.

My team members included David, Tom, Rafe, and Henry.

David programmed the Robo Pro Software.

Tom built the hardware.

Rafe, Henry, and I took screenshots, trouble shooted, and sketched some images.

I personally would give team MVP to Tom for basically putting the machine together from scratch including figuring out what inputs are supposed to go in.

We chose to tackle problem 3 as you might have guessed.

Sketches

We decided on a rail system for the motor. Using a gear box, the motor is able to crawl along the rail at a constant speed. Using the above pictures, we found that using picture1 we did not have an emergency stop. Picture 2 incorporates two switches that stop the cart when it reaches the end of the rail. The programing, while crude exhibits how the potentiometer controls the motor and how the switches end the program. These were later incorporated to the final design.

This program uses a logic tool to guide the motor. If a switch is pressed or not pressed in the case of the other switch, the program will stop the motor. If not, the motor continues. The potentiometer is connected to the program near the start and it loops indefinitely.

Conclusion
1. What was the most difficult part of the problem?

I believe that the potentiometer gave us the most issues. Programming was difficult and to make matters worse, our pot began to burn out a little from over amperage.

2. List and describe two features that were not part of the design problem that could be added to improve your design.
A) If we increased the length of the wire, we could run the wire along the bottom and hide a part of it to make it look cleaner.
B) The front switch was very ghetto and we could have placed it elsewhere. For example, adding more to our base to allow room for a stand to put the switch instead of attaching it to the "car" would look better.

OPT IN FACEBOOK

Question #1

Technologies that facilitated the regime change

1. Facebook
Facebook was created from a somewhat different thinking Harvard student. He created a social networking site to take all the hassle out of showing your friends how you spent your day. It allowed like minded protesters in Egypt to get together and consolidate ideas with out having to actually be in physical contact.

2. Google
Google was created by god-like programmers that decided to change the way people found information on the web. Using an intuitive program that quickly found information on the web allowed people to keep track on the protested.

3. Cell phones

Cell phones kept the protesters in communication for the duration of the protest with out having to use the internet. This allowed protesters to remain in contact for the whole event and coordinate their movements.


Question #2

Item one is a jacket with a hood. This would have been useful for protecting one against the elements. Since you would undoubtedly spend a large amount of time outdoors, you would need to guard yourself against the elements.

Item two is a pot lid. I don't know the exact use for one in this situation, so I can only speculate. I believe that one might have used it to protect oneself against possible thrown objects.

Item three is a pair of gloves. These are useful for keeping ones hands warm in a variety of situations and to keep your hands protected from harmful objects.

Item 4 is a spray paint can. Since this is a protest, various posters, signs and even graffiti would have been used. Since spray paint is very portable, it would have been useful to bring along.

Item 5 is a rose. Once again I have no idea what the exact use is, so I will speculate. I believe that the rose had a symbolism of some sort and that when people were walking by, the protesters would give said rose to them in some fashion.

Item 6 is a trash bag. I believe that it would be used to either carry ones belongings or to gather waste during the protest.

Item 7 is a pair of goggles. This was most definitely used to protect one's eyes. Whether from the sun or from protesting resistance is unknown.

Sub programs FOR THE WIN

The activity of today was to create a program that runs within another program. This is also known as a sub-program.

A benefit of using sub-programs is that it allows the main program to remain uncluttered. This allows you to identify any problems without a large cluster of commands.