Course Reflection - Michael Gershoni (7313-5372)

Mechanical Engineering 250 was my first “truly” mechanical engineering course. When I thought about declaring mechanical engineering as a major I imagined shops, safety glasses, and using my hands to create things. The first half of the semester I was heart-broken to learn that we had to complete multiple milestones and tasks before given admission into the mechanical engineering shop. However, I also learned the importance of thoughtful planning, meticulous designing, and mathematical analysis. Without the skills learned in the early portion of this course the mechanical engineering shop would be a large confusing space littered with heavy machinery. As much as I couldn’t wait to run in there and start building, it became very apparent that without the hours of designing we, as a team, would be lost. Another surprise was the amount of effort that went in to building the robot. Our battle cry to motivate us through the hours of designing on CAD was “Once the drawing are done the manufacturing will be quick.” This could not have been any farther from the truth. The craftsmanship necessary to make a functioning robot took weeks. I also learned that no matter how exact and perfect our design drawings seemed to be at the time, there were always unexpected issues to attend to in the shop.

I also learned a lot about working in a team environment. More specifically in this course than in previous courses like Engr 100, I learned the importance of specialties. As a group we were very lucky to be so different. One member in our group happened to be great at working with CAD. I learned that I was a fairly skilled manufacturer. Another member in our group was an EECS major and was very good with wiring the motors to the robot. While not every moment was perfect between us as teammates, judging by prior experience in teams, we were very compatible and very productive.

As explicitly mentioned above, I learned a lot. So no matter how difficult it was at the time, the method of teaching us was effective. I remember one day in lecture when a student asked, “What if you mess up in the shop and need more supplies?” the professor responded with, “We’d like to think you’d do it right the first time.” As sophomores we were thrown into a situation where we had no choice but to succeed in the class. Because of this we learned significantly more than designing modules on CAD and the mechanics behind gears, we learned how to look at an unfamiliar task and work at it until its completion.

While I am very pleased with what I have taken from this course, I must say that some of the lectures, after talking with peers, contained too much new material for the amount of time that material was covered. I believe shorter and more frequent lectures would help break the material over a longer period of time. Allowing for better comprehension of what was covered.

- Michael Gershoni

Individual Reflection by Travis Dehne

Over the course of Mechanical Engineering 250, I learned a lot about teamwork, time management, and over coming unseen obstacles. I realized that the transition from the design process to the manufacturing process isn’t always smooth and the ability to overcome the obstacles that ensue is critical to the completion of the project. I also discovered the importance of time management to the fluidity of the entire project and meeting deadlines. Most importantly, I found that teamwork is crucial to creating a working prototype. Overall, the project and class was demanding and called for the development of social and team skills, as well as my skills as an engineer to make a functioning, competitive design.

Tackling the design and manufacturing process of the course was more of a challenge than I anticipated. At the beginning of the course, I assumed that once a design was created, manufacturing that design would be smooth and fluid, without any foreseeable hiccups. I was very wrong. The design process was the easy part. Upon the start of manufacturing, our team realized that our initial design was not entirely feasible and many obstacles ensued. These design to manufacturing obstacles taught me that being calm and keeping a level head during a time crunch and design change allowed me to quickly solve the problems and improve our design. In addition, the manufacturing process taught me which materials were better for different parts, easier to create, and more cost effective.

While dealing with the obstacles presented from the design and manufacturing processes, I was taught the importance of time management with relation to deadlines and the project. As I learned about the unforeseeable obstacles associated with design and manufacturing, I discovered that leaving assignments to close to the deadline added stress to the project. In cases where I started the assignment early, I had more time to solve problems and this caused far less stress than when a problem arose right before a deadline. By the end of the course, I found that the project was smoother with ample time allotted for the assignments.

Finally, I realized the importance of having a team that works together. Towards the beginning of the project, there was a lack of teamwork with everyone working individually. But as the class continued, the team began working together and we accomplished tasks faster. We also began doing parts of the project separately to ensure we were maximizing our time. The combination of teamwork allowed us to complete the project to the best of our ability and without that level of teamwork I believe we would never have finished.

In conclusion, Mechanical Engineering 250 presented challenges that taught me about the design and manufacturing processes, teamwork, and time management which have allowed me to develop into a better engineer. All of these aspects allow for the successful completion of a project in a timely manner. Had our team better used these components of the course, our performance would have been better. My only wish for the course’s improvement would be less time in the computer lab and more time designing and manufacturing.

After the competition

All in all, now that the semester is done, we had a lot of fun throughout the semester and competition

We were happy with a win in the opening round, but were disappointed with a second round loss

Our machine went through many changes throughout the semester. Our design changed to meet what we felt were key aspects of the competition. We originally had a cart like design but decided to not include that as we went forward because we felt it took away some of the stability of our base. This may have been true but it appeared through the competition that teams that could drive did very well.

In the end we went with a stationary base and and extendable rotating arm. The extendable arm was very effective. It could change lengths much quicker than other teams and we were very happy with the constraints of the arm. It was very controlled the whole time. We, as well as Jean, were worried about the constraints of the arm but it turned out very well.

It was a fun semester and I feel much better about many aspects of design after the semester

Video

Our finished video about our team and our robot!

It's complete, it's been refined, tweaked and is ready for competition

We cant wait

Working Machine

We completed a working machine this morning. It was a scramble to complete on time but we managed somehow. We ran into a few delays, mostly due to our design flaws because a few screws were difficult to reach and tighten. We also accidently broke the mount to hold a gear this morning right before class so it was a scramble to fix last minute.

We found the control system is difficult to use and will take so getting used to but we are confident that we will get the hang of it quickly.

We also ran into a problem with some slipping where we need to increase the friction of some parts it is a somewhat minor issue and will not be difficult to fix.

Several pictures of the machine are shown below

Machine Manufacturing

We have begun manfuacturing on the parts for the rest of the machine

We cut out the frame of the base on the bandsaw and will mill the holes soon

We are also almost done with an omax toolpath for a couple of pieces.

We still have a problem with our most critical module, our arm is not nearly as constrained as we had hoped so we will still need to go back and fix that.

Here is some screen shots of our assembly for the base. The holes in the axel will mount to the from of the most critical module.

Manufacturing update

We have begun our manufacturing. Now done with our most critical module other than a few set backs. Our arm is not constrained as well as we hoped it would be. We will need to constrain the arm with e clips.

We now have designed the rest of our machine and the manufacturing will begin shortly. we have made several changes from our original vision to meet specific criteria or new challenges. More updates will come as the machine comes together.