This week's assignment has a lot of questions to answer. I think my head is spinning already. I think this week assignment really helps to answer all my doubts.
Question 1 - What will it do???
Making of Astromech which is something like a R2D2 in Starwars. This is a toy that I am building together with one of my buddy, Roy who will building the head and I will building the body. Basically my body part will be moving front and stop to rotate if it detects any obstruction and continue moving front.
Question 2 - Who's done what beforehand???
There is a student who build it before but in a much smaller scale which I was told by Neil much earlier on. The student build a R2D2 robot and we are building an Astromech. This time we are building something much bigger.
Question 3 - What materials and components will be required???
As planning for the materials, I will be using aluminium profiles, acrylic sheets and maybe some aluminium blocks. For the component side, I will be using Attiny to program the Astromech, sensors as inputs and motors as outputs.
Question 4 - Where will they come from???
For the materials, the aluminium profiles will be purchase from supplier, the acrylic sheets partially comes from the scrapes in the workshop and some of it purchase from supplier and the aluminium blocks will be using from the scrapes in the workshop.
For the components, the boards will be aquire from our instructor, Steven who will purchase it online at low costs, the sensors will get from the previous projects done by my students or I will purchase it online and for the motors are quite similar to how I am getting the sensors.
Question 5 - How much will it cost???
Regarding the cost, I will not be able to confirm until my project is finalized. The estimated cost might slightly below 300 singapore dollars.
Click here to view Bill of Materials (BOM)
Question 6 - What parts and systems will be made???
Most of the parts for the Astromech will be build by myself.
The body will be made from aluminium profiles, covers for the body will be using acrylic and for the aluminium blocks will be use for joints for the body.
The boards used to linked the inputs and outputs will be most likely build using the assignments covered by Neil.
Question 7 - What processes will be used???
Body - use Autodesk inventor to draw out the design and dimension of the Astromech. Using bench saw to cut aluminium profiles to the required length and might be using conventional milling or CNC machine to machine to better accuracy. Aluminium blocks will be done the same way as the aluminium profiles.
Board - use Eagles Cam to design and PCB mill machine to machine out then solder the components. Progamming of the board to link the inputs to the outputs.
Question 8 - What tasks need to be completed???
1) Completion of the design and dimension of the Astromech
2) Planning which part of the body to be fabricated and time to complete the parts
3) Parts for assembly must be machined within tolerances in order for good fitting
4) Preparing the board, sensors and motors to be mount on the body
5) Testing and troubleshooting of the Astromech
6) Checking for any improvements if possible
Question 9 - What questions need to be answered???
How to program the board to function the way I want it to move???
I am weak in programming which might caused a lot of problems while writing the program for the Astromech.
What kind of sensors to be used for the Astromech???
There are too many types of sensors to choose from. Need to search for the ideal one. Most probably using an ultrasonic sensor.
Where and how to position the sensors in order for it to work properly???
This is to make sure that I will avoid blind spots or else the Astromech will bang the wall or something else..
Question 10 - What is the schedule???
The following two weeks will build the body structure and install the parts then the final two weeks build up board and program then testing and troubleshooting.
First week - Prepare the parts needed to build the body and start on the body
Second week - Install the sensors, motors and wheels to the body
Third week - Prepare the board and write the program
Final week - Testing and troubleshooting of Astromech
Question 11 - How will it be evaluated???
One important factor to be evaluate is that the Astromech will be able to move freely with the help of the sensors to coordinate with the motors. Sensors will be able to detect the obstruction and send signals to the board and revert it to the motors to move away from the obstruction.