Week 12, Machine Design
Objectives
Design and actuate a machine
Inkuity
For the machine design week, I worked with David Wilson to build a 2-D plotting machine, which we dubbed "Inkuity". The machine was built using aluminum extrusions, off the shelf motion elements, and driven by stepper motors.
The as-built Inktuity machine.
Contribution
With a two person team, it was quite easy to divide the workload. I have a mechanical engineeering background and David is a computer scientist, so it was elegant for me to take on the mechanical design duties and for him to work out the hardware and software side. I did the initital exploration with the self-driving Mario Kart machine, and then pivoted to designing the gantry system once we locked onto building a drawing machine.
I found it to be a fun and interesting experience. It was a good challenge to sprint through the initial design to get far enough to order the right set of parts. I also enjoyed the building and tuning of the device and liked creating upgrades as the build came together. When the electronics were added, I helped David troubleshoot hardware and helped create toolpaths during testing. I also did the one minute video.
Someday, I will revisit the self-driving Mario Kart project.
