Robot Meetings this Week
Submitted by admin on April 25, 2010 - 12:35pm – No comments
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Hi everyone,
Sorry for being sick last week, but I didn't want to be the Patient Zero that knocked out the entire robotics team for a week. With a month left, we are well-positioned to build something fantastic, so let's build on recent achievements like fitting pneumatic cylinders to the arm, fitting the gripper with a bicycle brake line so that it can be mechanically actuated at a distance, and building a rotating base to spin the arm around. We still need to figure out how to rotate the gripper, actuate all those cylinders, re-attach the drive wheels, design a better bucket, speed up the speed controllers, re-design the remote control system to handle all those extra degrees of freedom, and come up with a cool paint job.
We'll be meeting the following days this week in Room 111:
- Mon Apr 26 - 2:30 to 4:30 (at least)
- Tue Apr 27 - 2:30 to 4:30 (at least)
- Wed Apr 28 - NO MEETING - Tech department meeting
- Thu Apr 29 - Maybe
- Fri Apr 30 - 2:30 to 4:30 (at least)
I hope to see you all there.
Cheers,
Alex Matan
Sorry for being sick last week, but I didn't want to be the Patient Zero that knocked out the entire robotics team for a week. With a month left, we are well-positioned to build something fantastic, so let's build on recent achievements like fitting pneumatic cylinders to the arm, fitting the gripper with a bicycle brake line so that it can be mechanically actuated at a distance, and building a rotating base to spin the arm around. We still need to figure out how to rotate the gripper, actuate all those cylinders, re-attach the drive wheels, design a better bucket, speed up the speed controllers, re-design the remote control system to handle all those extra degrees of freedom, and come up with a cool paint job.
We'll be meeting the following days this week in Room 111:
- Mon Apr 26 - 2:30 to 4:30 (at least)
- Tue Apr 27 - 2:30 to 4:30 (at least)
- Wed Apr 28 - NO MEETING - Tech department meeting
- Thu Apr 29 - Maybe
- Fri Apr 30 - 2:30 to 4:30 (at least)
I hope to see you all there.
Cheers,
Alex Matan
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- 27 reads
Robotics Resumes
Submitted by admin on April 16, 2010 - 4:49pm – No comments
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Hi everyone,
After a two week holiday where my robot life was replaced by having some semblance of a real life, it is now time to get back to the robotic life.
We will meet every day next week except Thursday, which is the night of the semi-formal. It's officially going from 2:30pm to 5pm, though we can always extend it out if justified.
I am arranging to get a real, live mechanical engineer to come in to give us a little workshop on pneumatics. This will hopefully be sometime next week.
So we'll hopefully see you on these days in Room 111:
- Monday, April 19 - 2:30pm to 5pm
- Tuesday, April 20 - 2:30pm to 5pm
- Wednesday, April 21 - 2:30pm to 5pm
- NOT Thursday NOT NOT NOT NOT
- Friday, April 23 - 2:30pm to 5pm
Cheers,
Alex Matan
After a two week holiday where my robot life was replaced by having some semblance of a real life, it is now time to get back to the robotic life.
We will meet every day next week except Thursday, which is the night of the semi-formal. It's officially going from 2:30pm to 5pm, though we can always extend it out if justified.
I am arranging to get a real, live mechanical engineer to come in to give us a little workshop on pneumatics. This will hopefully be sometime next week.
So we'll hopefully see you on these days in Room 111:
- Monday, April 19 - 2:30pm to 5pm
- Tuesday, April 20 - 2:30pm to 5pm
- Wednesday, April 21 - 2:30pm to 5pm
- NOT Thursday NOT NOT NOT NOT
- Friday, April 23 - 2:30pm to 5pm
Cheers,
Alex Matan
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- 33 reads
Tech Art Exhibit & Cool Robotics Talk
Submitted by admin on April 8, 2010 - 10:57am – No comments
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Hi everyone,
I hope you're having a snappy day. Here are some opportunities for inspiration that you can take in this week or at your leisure:
= t'art: Technology Art Exhibition =
UW offers a course that puts engineering and fine arts students together to come up with wacky stuff. Their final projects are on display at the UW's Critical Media Lab from 11am to 7pm today (Thursday), tomorrow (Friday), and Saturday. It is located in the old Public Utilities Commission building across the street from Kitchener City Hall. One of the profs for the course (Rob Gorbet) is the guy who runs the FIRST robotics competition at UW and his brother does some really neat stuff, too. Find him and talk to him about what we are up to! It's definitely worth checking out, especially because it's free!
http://tarsas.uwaterloo.ca/tart/
After the provincials and nationals are done in May, I would like to continue the robotics club in this direction - just making really cool stuff.
= Dennis Hong: My seven species of robot =
This whole video on TED Talks is awesome. At the seven minute mark they show a pretty cool air-powered hand that they made for $200.
http://www.ted.com/talks/dennis_hong_my_seven_species_of_robot.html
You should try to watch at least one TED Talks video per day. They will blow your mind.
Cheers,
Alex Matan
I hope you're having a snappy day. Here are some opportunities for inspiration that you can take in this week or at your leisure:
= t'art: Technology Art Exhibition =
UW offers a course that puts engineering and fine arts students together to come up with wacky stuff. Their final projects are on display at the UW's Critical Media Lab from 11am to 7pm today (Thursday), tomorrow (Friday), and Saturday. It is located in the old Public Utilities Commission building across the street from Kitchener City Hall. One of the profs for the course (Rob Gorbet) is the guy who runs the FIRST robotics competition at UW and his brother does some really neat stuff, too. Find him and talk to him about what we are up to! It's definitely worth checking out, especially because it's free!
http://tarsas.uwaterloo.ca/tart/
After the provincials and nationals are done in May, I would like to continue the robotics club in this direction - just making really cool stuff.
= Dennis Hong: My seven species of robot =
This whole video on TED Talks is awesome. At the seven minute mark they show a pretty cool air-powered hand that they made for $200.
http://www.ted.com/talks/dennis_hong_my_seven_species_of_robot.html
You should try to watch at least one TED Talks video per day. They will blow your mind.
Cheers,
Alex Matan
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- 33 reads
Pictures
Submitted by Mike C on March 27, 2010 - 1:27am – 1 comment
Note: I have attached a bunch of pictures, no clue how to open them. Anybody know how to access pictures from the blog?
Hello Everyone,
So here are some pictures from regionals. Enjoy! Videos to come!
We won 1st in our board and tied for second overall.Blue vale and our robot we equal (both hand built from the ground up). KCI had an amazing robot with numatics and tons of cool features. However they basicly use the smae robot every year for the past 9 years, and change one small aspect. And they have a huge budget.
The score:
Davids 4 point
Bluevale 4 points
KCI 20 points each round x 8 rounds = alot more then us
For provicails we have $700 garanteed. We can also ask for more if we run out. If we make a plan, Mr. Hollowack said money is availbe. So finances should not be a problem, just our time.
Hello Everyone,
So here are some pictures from regionals. Enjoy! Videos to come!
We won 1st in our board and tied for second overall.Blue vale and our robot we equal (both hand built from the ground up). KCI had an amazing robot with numatics and tons of cool features. However they basicly use the smae robot every year for the past 9 years, and change one small aspect. And they have a huge budget.
The score:
Davids 4 point
Bluevale 4 points
KCI 20 points each round x 8 rounds = alot more then us
For provicails we have $700 garanteed. We can also ask for more if we run out. If we make a plan, Mr. Hollowack said money is availbe. So finances should not be a problem, just our time.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Test Robot | 187.03 KB |
| Course | 318.57 KB |
| Course | 337.44 KB |
| Course | 348.18 KB |
| KCI's Robot | 309.01 KB |
| Some Team Members | 386.23 KB |
| Our Table | 426.75 KB |
| Our Table | 419.12 KB |
| Our Team | 374.58 KB |
| Mike T in a great mood | 233.09 KB |
| Our Robot in good shape | 384.4 KB |
| Working on robot | 283.87 KB |
| On The Course | 341.99 KB |
| On The Course | 350.07 KB |
| 7 Pointer | 377.35 KB |
| Robot | 322.42 KB |
| Robot On Ramp | 321.1 KB |
| Robot On Ramp | 336.95 KB |
| On The Ramp | 342.77 KB |
| Robot | 329.27 KB |
| Robot | 327.34 KB |
| Robot Rear | 367.71 KB |
| Our Karean Freinds Display Prototype | 251.67 KB |
- Mike C's blog
- 76 reads
March Break Robotics Work
Submitted by admin on March 14, 2010 - 5:59pm – 1 comment
Tags:
Hi everyone,
I hope you're all having an awesome time off from school.
We have not much more than a week left to put together the robot. Pretty much everything we need is ready to assemble, so it's a good place to be. The days over March Break will be super productive since we can leave all our stuff out, saving a half an hour of annoying setup and half an hour of even more annoying clean-up each day.
To get into the school, you will need to go to the auto shop door via "The Compound." The Compound is the brick walled outdoor area that has the big, wide heavy doors facing the parking lot. It is the access point for cars and materials to get into the auto and wood shop. The compound doors will be left open by me so you can get in. The phone in room 111, where we build our robots, can be reached at 519-885-1340 ext. 111. Call if you have any problems getting in or are wondering if anyone is still there. Keep in mind that cell voice/SMS/data reception is sketchy at best in that room.
Here's the schedule for now:
Monday, March 15 - 9am to 2pm. May extend to as late as 4pm if things are going well. We will probably take a break for lunch off campus. Call 519-885-1340 ext. 111 before heading over if you are coming around lunch time or after 2pm.
Tuesday, March 16 - 12pm to 4pm.
Wednesday, March 17 - No robotics today.
Thursday, March 18 - Possible robotics day. I will email you if we are going to come in. It will certainly not be in the morning, as the cleaning staff will be coming in then and don't want us around.
Friday, March 19 - Possible robotics day. I will email you if we are going to come in.
Cheerio,
Alex Matan
I hope you're all having an awesome time off from school.
We have not much more than a week left to put together the robot. Pretty much everything we need is ready to assemble, so it's a good place to be. The days over March Break will be super productive since we can leave all our stuff out, saving a half an hour of annoying setup and half an hour of even more annoying clean-up each day.
To get into the school, you will need to go to the auto shop door via "The Compound." The Compound is the brick walled outdoor area that has the big, wide heavy doors facing the parking lot. It is the access point for cars and materials to get into the auto and wood shop. The compound doors will be left open by me so you can get in. The phone in room 111, where we build our robots, can be reached at 519-885-1340 ext. 111. Call if you have any problems getting in or are wondering if anyone is still there. Keep in mind that cell voice/SMS/data reception is sketchy at best in that room.
Here's the schedule for now:
Monday, March 15 - 9am to 2pm. May extend to as late as 4pm if things are going well. We will probably take a break for lunch off campus. Call 519-885-1340 ext. 111 before heading over if you are coming around lunch time or after 2pm.
Tuesday, March 16 - 12pm to 4pm.
Wednesday, March 17 - No robotics today.
Thursday, March 18 - Possible robotics day. I will email you if we are going to come in. It will certainly not be in the morning, as the cleaning staff will be coming in then and don't want us around.
Friday, March 19 - Possible robotics day. I will email you if we are going to come in.
Cheerio,
Alex Matan
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- 56 reads
Bionic Hand Completion, Shopping Fails, and Forgotten Counterweights
Submitted by admin on March 10, 2010 - 10:45pm – No comments
This is how robots are made.
Mechanical hand, complete with electromagnetic muscle.
Mechanical hand, complete with electromagnetic muscle.
- After trying half a dozen random servos of varying strength and sketchiness, we found one that was powerful enough to actuate the gripper. Congrats to Owen D., Alanna G., Merrick P., and Jordan T. for putting together a working electromechanical hand with only sparing use of duct tape. Yay!
- Alanna G. learned how to use the drill press and band saw.
- Johnny H. and Mike C. took the arm on a road trip and paid a visit to Motion Canada. They learned that the stuff we plan to use is not the sort of thing respectable establishments like that keep in stock. But they were happy to order in the belts that match our bucket of cast-off pulleys. They picked up the sleeves (collars?) ordered earlier to adapt the diameter of our motor shafts with those of our wheel hubs.
- Doughnuts!
- Mr. Matan visited Metal Supermarket in Kitchener in the morning and picked up a length of their lightest, thinnest aluminum tubing, but it was still heavier than what we already had for the arm. But the guys at the counter thought our robot was cool and they mentioned that they had sponsored a school in the past. They are open weekdays from 8am to 5pm. Not sure about the weekend.
- Owen D. learned how to make a flat side on a round shaft using an anvil and metal file. He also discovered how easy it is to break screws.
- Owen D., Merrick P., and Mr. Matan almost thought we were toasted by torque, but it turns out that you really need to remember to counterweight the arm with the equivalent weight of the drive motors when testing the belt drive system. Otherwise the motors and belts don't seem to work nearly as well as they did the day before.
- Out before 7pm today. Yay!
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Motorized Gripper (3gp video) | 385.38 KB |
| 20100310-OwenAlannaCarpeDiem-Large.jpeg | 561.34 KB |
| 20100310-WorkingMotorizedGripper-Large.jpeg | 553.17 KB |
- 44 reads
All your base are belong to us
Submitted by admin on March 9, 2010 - 8:49pm – No comments
We now have a prototype arm on a rotating base. Tomorrow, we buy belts and motorize everything.
Today we decided that two motorized joints in the arm plus a rotating base would be sufficient. Using a limp wrist method of attachment, the gripper will always aim down, regardless of the positions of the other joints. Or so we hope.
And we restocked our duct tape supplies. Though we are striving to avoid using duct tape in the final design, it's an invaluable tool during prototyping and testing. There's no faster way to attach two pieces of anything than with duct tape
Today we decided that two motorized joints in the arm plus a rotating base would be sufficient. Using a limp wrist method of attachment, the gripper will always aim down, regardless of the positions of the other joints. Or so we hope.
And we restocked our duct tape supplies. Though we are striving to avoid using duct tape in the final design, it's an invaluable tool during prototyping and testing. There's no faster way to attach two pieces of anything than with duct tape
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| 3-degrees of freedom in 3-space (3gp video) | 890.36 KB |
| The handyman's secret weapon: duct tape (jpeg) | 493.86 KB |
| Investigating viability of 3-degrees of freedom (jpeg) | 546.06 KB |
| Building the rotating base (jpeg) | 547.84 KB |
| Rotating base and prototype arm - together at last (jpeg) | 526.19 KB |
- 51 reads
Belt-Driven Arms, Dropping off Attendance, and More Gripping Action!
Submitted by Alex Matan on March 8, 2010 - 10:21pm – No comments
The wooden frame is now aluminum. We might never get rid of the cardboard box.
Some of what happened today:
Some of what happened today:
- The robot took some attendance folders down to the office (see video).
- Mike C. and Mike T. worked on arm dimensioning.
- Mike T. built a metal T-frame for the base of the robot and affixed the drive-train (see pics).
- Owen D. further improves the gripper with the aid of Alanna G.
- After discovering that our motors would not generate enough torque for the intended simple-but-unworkable arm design that had a heavy motor at every joint, Owen D. and Mr. Matan started to work on ways to do counter-weighting and belt-driven joints (see video).
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Metal frame and drivetrain - quarter view (jpeg) | 498.78 KB |
| Metal frame and drivetrain - undercarriage (jpeg) | 475.98 KB |
| Gripper (jpeg) | 486.75 KB |
| Delivering attendance folders (3gp video) | 2.44 MB |
| Belt-drive testing (3gp video) | 188.79 KB |
| Gripping action! (3gp video) | 181.19 KB |
- 50 reads
It moves! Videos of Traction System Prototype (2010-03-05)
Submitted by Alex Matan on March 5, 2010 - 11:09pm – 1 comment
Please note that this unit is only a test rig to test out the drive-train performance. We do not intend to build our final robot out of two sticks and a cardboard box.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| 6:48pm - Doughnuts and Handbrake Turns (mp4) | 3.63 MB |
| 6:51pm - Hopping Ramps (mp4) | 1.52 MB |
| 6:58pm - Owen's Gripper (mp4) | 151.86 KB |
| 7:01pm - Towing (mp4) | 215.12 KB |
| 7:04pm - More Towing (mp4) | 876.42 KB |
| 6:09pm - Traction Prototype Picture - Large Version (jpeg) | 567.13 KB |
- 3821 reads
Rules Highlights
Submitted by Alex Matan on March 1, 2010 - 12:54am – No comments
Feel free to leave a comment below or click the "Edit" tab and edit this page to add your own highlights.
Picking up parts
Picking up parts
- After picking up a part and moving away from the pickup area, you can put parts on the ground. But if you drop a part before leaving the pickup platform, it is dead.
- You can pick up and possess more than one part at a time and store them or dump them wherever you want.
- The robot has to be on the 24"x24" raised platform when picking up parts from the pickup areas and placing parts on the target areas.
- There's nothing to say that the same system has to be used to pick up the parts as to place them.
Size
- If you want to take the shortcut to the target zone, you need to fit in the 18"x18" opening (with sufficient clearance). Of course, if you picked up all of the parts first, then taking the shortcut isn't such a big deal as it is one trip and you can dump all the parts in the target zone. So you just need to clear the 24" wide ramp instead, which you'll need to be able to do anyways as the pickup and target platforms are up ramps anyways.
- "5. Round robin games will last four minutes." - (Scope, p.16). So we need to move quickly.
- 65 reads
