Somerset Berkley Regional High School Robotics Engineering with LabView

1. Engineering Design Central Concepts: Engineering design involves practical problem solving, research, development, and invention/innovation, and requires designing, drawing, building, testing, and redesigning. Students should demonstrate the ability to use the engineering design process to solve a problem or meet a challenge. Ma.Science and Engineering Framework 2006

1.1Identify and explain the steps of the engineering design process: identify the problem, research the problem, develop possible solutions, select the best possible solution(s), construct prototypes and/or models, test and evaluate, communicate the solutions, and redesign. Identify the problem Research the problem Develop solutions Select the best solution Construct a prototype Test and evaluate Communicate the solutions Redesign Ma.Science and Engineering Framework 2006

Step 1 Identify the problem In this challenge we had to create a robot that would successfully climb up a rope and then come back down it. Ma.Science and Engineering Framework 2006

Step 2 Research the problem Explore other options via the internet We didn’t use any internet sites. We just went for it and used a guess and check system of creating a prototype, testing it and then making any necessary improvements. Ma.Science and Engineering Framework 2006

Step 3 Develop solutions BRAINSTORM COLLABORATION Student : Share your ideas with your design team. List your ideas below. 1.Something that would reel the rope in. The rope could be tied around a tire and as it rotated the rope would gradually collect around the wheel, like a fishing pole would take in line. 2.A robot with two wheels that would clamp the rope. The wheels would pull the robot up the rope and bring it back down again.

Step 4 Select the best Possible solution(s) We decided to build the robot with the two wheels that would clamp the rope. We thought this would be a simpler design and we would be able to alter/improve it in more ways than the fishing reel robot. Ma.Science and Engineering Framework 2006

The Somerset Berkley writing rubric will be used for assessment. Our robot will be very simple to make and have very few moving parts. Two motors will be attached side by side. There will be two tireless wheels at the rotating points of the motors and barriers on either side of the wheels to ensure the rope does not slip out will the robot is climbing. The power of the motors will be turned up to 100, this will give it the best chance it has to get up the rope. The battery pack will not be attached to the motors. It will be left dangling freely below as the robot climbs. This is because the parts needed to attached the battery pack will increase the weight, and the heavier the robot is the harder it will have to pull. The idea behind this robot will be to minimize weight while maximizing the power.

Step 5 Construct a prototype Build a robot with your NXT lego kit Create a computer program for your robot. Ma.Science and Engineering Framework 2006 Use the next slide(s) for the digital pictures of your prototypes and computer programs.

1st Prototype picture and computer program Step 5 evidence

Step 6 Test and Evaluate the solution(s) Ma.Science and Engineering Framework 2006 The first prototype of our robot did not work. It kept slipping down the rope, it didn’t have enough grip. The first modified prototype will have the small skinny wheels pushed all together with the tires on. We were hoping this would give us the grip we needed to climb the rope. This prototype did not work as well. When we were putting the rope in the robot it would get stuck and the motors would stop spinning. We decided it was time to go back to the drawing board. The second modified prototype looks a lot like the first one. The only difference we made was to bring the motors closer to each other giving us the correct amount of grip. We also put tension on the rope which helped the robot to not swing around everywhere.

1 st modified prototype picture and computer program Step 6 evidence

2 nd modified prototype picture and computer program Step 6 evidence

3 rd modified prototype picture and computer program Add additional slides as necessary

Step 7 Communicate the solution(s) Ma.Science and Engineering Framework 2006 Provide the YouTube link of your video that shows how your robot meets the challenge. YouTube video link

Redesign If I could redesign the robot I would probably start off by getting the distance between the two wheels correct before. If we had done this it would have saved us a lot of time. Other than that I think our robot was fit for the task. Ma.Science and Engineering Framework 2006