2/26/2021 0 Comments Playing Around With the MotorsThis week we began our journey in electrical, namely interacting with the motor. We took apart the legs and experimented with a motor. We hooked it up to a breadboard and wired it to an Arduino to test its movement. Here is a quick look at our motor experimenting setup: We were able to get the motor to move at desired movements, so this is a good sign for us. Our next plan is to order the remaining electrical parts we need, and then put it all together. In the meantime, we're beginning some of the software and controls work, as our demo day is fast approaching. Some of the tasks we need to work on: porting over the motor library code, getting the camera to work, and then starting the motion planning software. One of our goals for the demo is to show the camera output working. More specifically, our plan for next week:
1. Setup the development environment for the Raspberry Pi 2. Develop the controller and camera streaming to the PC 3. Port the motor library to the Raspberry Pi We hope to complete these 3 tasks before we begin the motion planning code. We'll provide an update next week!
0 Comments
2/19/2021 0 Comments Wrapping Up MechanicalWe're excited to share the progress we've made this week as we're beginning to wrap up the mechanical portion of our robot. With all the components now in hand, we started with building up each leg by putting together the 3D printed parts with the motors: We constructed this build for all six legs, and brought them together with the chassis of the robot. This resulted in a first initial look at what our robot will look like. Since our intention is for delivery, we added a sample payload (i.e., a plant) to show how its delivery items would be positioned. Of course, we still have to integrate the electrical components, but this is just a taste of what's to come: As you can see, all six legs are now situated at the bottom of each corner of our hexagonal chassis. In the chassis are several cutouts which will house the electrical components and manage the wiring between the controller, various sensors, power supply, and motors. Later on, the goal is to add a casing which will house the payload and keep it safe from the robot's components and outside environment. To get an idea of its size, here it is with all its legs fully elongated, standing next to a couch: It is able to stand straight up on its own which is a good sign. Also, as you can see, it is more than large enough to be able to carry our desired payloads to achieve the goals of the project, so we're pretty excited about that. Lastly, we wanted to try something fun: our project mentors already know this, but back when we were in our third year of engineering, we actually did a similar project for our MTE 380 - Mechatronics Engineering Design Workshop course. It was a much smaller, scaled-down version of what we are doing now, with less features and a different objective, but the underlying design is similar. So, here it is, our smaller hexapod robot riding the back of our current robot: We're happy with the progress we've made thus far. Now, we plan to begin the electrical side of the robot: get all the parts and components together, integrate them into chassis, and start wiring and connecting things up. We'll provide an update next week, as well as every subsequent week, until the completion of our project. Thanks for reading!
Since last week, we've been well underway in the building of our prototype. We're hoping to share a photo in the next few days of what all the mechanical components look like when put together. We almost have all of our 3D printed parts for the base of the prototype, along with components for the legs, which alone cost $200. Our goal at this point is to finish the mechanical construction of our project in the next week or two, and then begin integrating it with the electrical components.
Speaking of the electrical portion, we noticed that for the connectors, we could not find any pre-crimped wires from DigiKey. This led us to having to make a decision: do we buy expensive pre-made cables, or do we attempt to crimp the wires ourselves? Perhaps if we were in-person, we would've attempted to do this ourselves and save money, but due to the current circumstances, we decided to just buy the cables pre-made. Although this costs us more money, it is easier for us and gives us peace of mind knowing we would already have them properly made. However, with this method, the only thing we have to do ourselves is to splice the wires into a daisy chain. And with our current electronics knowledge and abilities, we should have no issues in getting this to work. 2/5/2021 0 Comments Let the Building BeginBuilding is well underway, as we have received most of the 3D printed parts for the assembly. For the printing, we went with a company in Toronto called Velto 3D, using ABS+ material. The main components of our robot are the chassis or the body, the six legs, and the platform for the payload. The legs are split into three sections: the outer leg, the middle leg, and the inner leg. With each component comes various accessories such as fasteners, bolts, and washers, to connect everything together. Here's a sneak peek of one of our connectors: Now, what's building it for the first time without running into any issues? Yeah, we don't know either. As you can see in the image above, the printed connector snapped between two sections of a leg. This prompted us to slightly redesign the middle link for each leg of the assembly. Once we finished this, we reordered these parts and are awaiting their arrival. For now, we'll continue building up the robot and seeing if we need to redesign anything else.
|
Archives |