Amount of funding awarded
View budget report.
How the program has supported you
The objective of this project was to provide students with the chance to learn, and practice skills in mechanical, electrical and software design. Through PAF funding we were able to fabricate a 4-bar linkage arm that is moved by 2 dynamixel servos. This enabled us to learn to use Matlab for the integration of the mechanical design of the project to its software. Python programming is widely utilized in software/electrical positions and in this project, we were able to become more familiar with this useful language and also learn to use its OpenCV library for image processing. This project is also meant to a demonstration piece for various events to encourage student and sponsor interest in our Open Robotics design team (and design teams in general). Our prototype has attended the Mech2 open house and attracted many students to our booth who expressed great interest in learning more about this project.
This project has allowed us, the intermediate level members of the team to learn new skills and apply our classroom knowledge to real-life challenges. The integration of the moving arm to the plotting of the drawing was achieved using calculations from Matlab. This is useful to employers as Matlab is a tool used commonly for the optimization of any mechanical design. This project also allowed us to become proficient in the Python programming language which is often listed as a desirable skill by many software/electrical related positions. Throughout this project we learned not only new technical skills but also enhanced our ability to solve problems. As challenges rose, we researched, discussed, and worked together to find an optimal solution. This project will be a continuous challenge for our team as it will open doors to experimentation with machine learning.