log 14

I have had absolutely no time to do logs.  I have had to work constantly on building in order that we may draw what we have.  I uploaded all of my developmental work yesterday, and I worked from the start of lunch to the end then from the start of class to the end.  I was able to complete almost everything.  i will now upload the front and side views.

Motor

Motor is connected to the PIC microcontroller and moves the objects connected to its rotational piece. This rotates with 360 degrees.

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Servo

Servo delivers rotation to the different parts of this robot.  The rotation delivered by the servo is limited and cannot make a full 360 degree rotation.

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29 motor controller

The 29 Motor controller is an adapter to make the motors compatable with the PIC microcontroller.  With out this the motors will spin without control.  I can say this from experience.

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Power Pack

The Power pack hold an electrical charge that feeds the PIC Microcontroller.  This is re-chargable and will be charged prior to the use.

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Receiver Module

The Receiver module accepts the signals transmitted from the remote controller and delivers them to the PIC Microcontroller.

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PIC Microcontroller

This a 3-D view of the PIC Microcontroller.  This is the "brain box of the entire VEX robot.  All motors plug in to the ports on top.  The power pack and the receiver plugs into the ports show on the front.  Orthographics are shown below.

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Bill of Materials

			Supply List
Item	Description	QTY	Size	Remarks
1	balloon	8	1.5"x2.25"x1.25"	protects motors and servos from water damage
2	super glue	1	Tube	seal the balloon

Tools and Equipment List

Item	Description	Use
1	Allan Key	attach the screws to hold the motor or servo into place

Materials list

1	PIC Microcontroller	1	4.5"x3.9"x1.1"	receives the commands from the remote controller
2	7.2 V Power Pack	1	1.2"x1.7"x2"	delivers power to the microcontroller
3	Remote Controller	1	8"x8"x2.5"	Controls the VEX robot
4	Screws	462	8-32x1/4"	holds everything into place

Parts List

Item	Description	QTY	Size	Remarks
1	2-wire motor	5	1.5"x2.25"x1.25"	move the parts of the robot with unlimited rotation
2	Servo Modules	4	1.5"x2.25"x1.25"	move the parts of the robot with restricted rotation
3	motor controller 29	4	1.25"x.75"x.25"	acts as an extension cord
4	Transmitter Unit	1		receives the signals transmitted from the controller

Plan of Procedures

The plan of procedures for the electrical engineer begins while the plan of procedures for the mechanical engineer is being completed.

1.      Attach the PIC Microcontroller to the center of the structural hull with a screw at each corner.

2.      Attach the receiver module to the left of the PIC Microcontroller with a screw in each corner.

3.      Connect the receiver module and the PIC Microcontroller by plugging in the receiver module’s wire into the port labeled “R1.”

4.      Connect the power pack into the appropriate port on the PIC Microcontroller.

5.      Attach a servo to the inside, forward, starboard side of the hull with two screws in order to attach to the mechanical arm.

6.      Connect the servo wire to the motor port on the PIC Microcontroller.

7.      Attach a motor to the port, aft, projection of structure and connect it to the shaft. This shaft connects to the claw.

8.      Connect the motor to the 29-motor controller and connect that to the PIC Microcontroller.

9.      Connect a servo to the claw.

10.  Connect the servo wire to the servo extension wires.

11.  Connect the end of the servo extension wire to the PIC Microcontroller.

12.  Connect a motor to each side of the aft end of the hull with two screws each.

13.  Attach the shafts to the propellers to these motors.

14.  Connect the wires of the motors to the 29 motor controllers.

15.  Connect the 29 motor controller wires to the PIC Microcontroller.

16.  Charge the battery to the remote controller and the power pack.

Log 13

Over the past week, I have been hard at work on my developmental work.  I completed all lists and plan of procedures.  I also have drawn the 2-wire motor, the servo module, and the 29 motor controller on Auto CAD.  I have started the power pack and PIC microcontroller, but I have reached an impass in my drawings because they have become very hard.  The past week, I worked on the work from first bell until the sand in the systems hour glass ran empty; this is the reason I have not done a log last week, and I deeply apologize.  To show my sincerity, I shall complete four logs this week. One down...

Log 12

On Tuesday, the entire VEX group went down to the systems lab and took an inventory of each kit.  Now, with my more advanced knowledge of electricity, I was quickly able to figure out the electrical system and how it would integrate with the mechanical system.  The only thing of which I am still unaware is how the remote controller will control the motors, but I sall figure that one out at a later date.  Yesterday, I went back to the lab to measure my parts and start my supply, tools and equipment, material, and parts lists. Today, I finished those lists and caught the fact that I forgot the parts list; now, I am starting the Plan of Procedures. Correction! Whilst I was finishing my lists, I believe I figured out how the controller transmits its signal, but I will need another trip to the lab to confirm this; alas, however, the sand in the systems hour glass is too low for a succesful trip. Another day, perhaps...

Log 11

Over the weekend, I acquired a large flashlight and thermostat wire.  I proceeded to deconstruct the flashlight to its basic components: the light, the power source, the switch, and the case.  I disposed of the case because it was not necessary.  I then had to drive to Sear’s Hardware store because the Radio Shack near my house closed.  At Sear’s, I purchased a foot of thermostat wire.  Thermostat wire is one of the most common types of wires.  I took it home and removed the first layer of insulation, exposing two separate copper wires.  I then removed the insulation at the end of each wire and cut the wires in half.  I attached the red wire to the positive end of the battery and the white wire to the negative end.  I reattached the white wires together and connected it to the negative end of the light.  The red wire I attached to the positive end of the light and the positive end of the battery.  In the middle of the red wires I connected them to the switch which I removed from the flashlight.  This whole thing was then disassembled to fit in a shoe box to bring to school.  I rebuilt the model in the beginning of class.  Then I wrote this and began working on my CAD drawings.

Log 10

Today, I caught up with yesterday's log and added the calendar directly to my blog.  I changed the theme of the blog because "Awesome Inc." was not very pleasing to the eye; I decided to go with the travel theme.  Afterwards, I viewed a video on how to build an electrical model (the link is below). This is the video off of which I will base the construction of my model which will be completed over this long weekend.

http://www.ehow.com/video_4766175_build-electrical-circuit-model-house.html

Log 9

Yesterday, the class went over the packet for Marking Period Two.  This includes developmental work (40%), mentor contacts(10%), participation/schedule/calendar and log sheet(10%), formal progress update presentation(20%), formal report update to mentor(15%), and progress poster(5%). The first assigment due to us is the Calendar; it is due 11/30 and I completed it yestersday (the link is on the calendar tab).  The percentages next to the assignments correspond to the weight of each assignment on our Marking Period Two grade.

Log 8

Today, TM and I followed through with MrV and approached him at lunch.  He did not bring the robotics book; although, he provided us with an email address of the co-author of the book which he was going to bring to us.  I sent her an e-mail in order to see if she could be another mentor.  She, according to MrV, should be abe to send us a link to a website that has schematics of electrical circuits for underwater robots.

Log 7

Today, we learned that only four models of the whole class were above an 80% and all others had to re-do their's.  I did some research on the computers in order to find something off of which I could base a good model.  CMcD pointed me in the direction of MrV.  He is skilled in physics and electrical systems.  I will follow up with him tomorrow at lunch time and he will guide me in the process.

Model Redesign

The model that I constructed was not up to the expectations of the instructors.  I devised a plan to increase the usability and overall appearance of the model itself.  To create a model of the electrical system of the VEX robot, I will have to first find a schematic of a robot; preferably this robot won a robotics competition at the high school or college level.  I will closely follow the schematic and represent each piece with a power source, wires, and lights to symbolize the power source, wires, and motors.  I will be sure to label each part of the model in order to inform the viewer with limited knowledge on electricity of the entire system.

Mentor Contacts MPI

Mentor Name: Michael John Badger
Contact 1: July 15, 2011
Phone meeting with Michael John Badger. This meeting was a 3 way call that lasted about 30 minutes. CJ’s mother introduced Mr. Badger to CJ and me and we further introduced ourselves later in the meeting. We discussed our expectations for the class and upcoming project. Christopher Brzozowski and Dustin Brandl
Contact 2: July 20, 2011
Sent:
Good afternoon,
Attached is our systems engineering project/presentation. We look forward to working with you.
Thanks,
CJ and Dustin
Contact 2: July 20, 2011
Recieved
CJ and Dustin,
You were very active during the last school year. Your newsletter was informative and interesting. Based on evidence of your creativity, enthusiasm, and introduction to the engineering disciplines, you appear poised for a memorable and productive senior year.
Request your thoughts on what value to a customer your robotics project will provide. Does the robot help her in some way? Does it retreive items underwater and bring them to the surface? Does it clean pools? Does it retrieve lost items which have a Bluetooth or other unique transmitting device enabled (e.g., lost cell in the house, car keys, or garage door opener)?
Mike
Contact 3: September 9, 2011
Sent:

Hello Mr. Badger, I hope you had a great summer. We just got back into school and we are required to have your phone number, email, employer, position and job description for our mentor fact sheet. The sooner you can send me these the better, hope to hear back from you soon. Thank you for your time. - CJ and Dustin

Contact 3: September 9, 2011
Recieved:
CJ and Dustin,
Name: Michael J. Badger, P.E., MBA
Phone: 732-737-4414
email: michael.john.badger@verizon.net
Employer: Program Executive Office Integration (PEO I), US Army
Position: Deputy, Executive Director, System of Systems Engineering and Integration
Job description: The lead for overall execution of the combined engineering, business management, acquisition and pricing approach to development and acquisition of PEO Integration systems under development. Supervisor of personnel to meet program priorities and ensure those efforts are properly integrated. Overseer of reviews and approver of the associated execution plans and schedules, ensuring the optimal mix of in-house and contract work, and ensure appropriate collaboration with external organizations (Office of the SECDEF/Department of the Army, user requirements community, testing community, Army laboratories) to meet or exceed all goals.
Regards,
MJB
Contact 4: September 29, 2011

michael.john.badger@verizon.net writes: >Chris and Dustin, > > What is the status of your project? Have you developed the inital >concept and specifications? > > Regards, > Mike Badger > >

Contact 4: September 30, 2011Sent:
Hello Mr. Badger,
So far we have taken inventory of our VEX robotics sets and have been working on our project blogs. The Blogs contain information on the Specifications, Limitations, project status, Background Information, and much more on the project. We will send you the links to these blogs as soon as we get approval from our instructor. Our project now is to design an aquatic vehicle that accomplishes certain challenges and a terrestrial vehicle that will gather endangered Piping Plover eggs without breaking them or disturbing the surrounding environment. We will keep you updated as we move along. Thank you very much for your time.
- CJ and Dustin

Contact 5: Contact: October 19, 2011
SentHello,
Here is the link for the blogs we have been working on in class http://brzozowskivex.blogspot.com/
Right now we are working on our alternative solutions and will have images of what we want the product to look like up soon.
Thank you for your time
- CJ and Dustin
Contact: October 19, 2011
Recieved:CJ and Dustin,
I looked through the postings on your blogspot. Interesting. It will be good to see which design you settle upon.
Mike Badger

Mentor Name: Naga Kunduru
Contact 6: September 11, 2011Sent:
>On Sun, Sep 11, 2011 at 2:01 PM, Christopher Brzozowski <[
>mailto:christopher_brzozowski@mast.mcvsd.org
>]christopher_brzozowski@mast.mcvsd.org> wrote:
>
>
>
>Hello Mr. Naga,
>
>Thank you very much for volunteering to mentor us during this school
>year.
>We would like to speak to you soon about our project. Please let us
>know
>when we can reach you. In the meantime, our school requires your email,
>phone number, employer, position, and job description for our mentor
>fact
>sheet. We look forward to hearing back from you. Thank you for your
>time.
>
>- CJ and Dustin
Contact 6: September 13, 2011Recieved:
Naga Kunduru <nkunduru@gmail.com> writes:
>Hi CJ, you can call me on my cell (848-702-7021) between 6-9pm in the
>evenings.
>Here is my info for your school's mentor fact sheet:
>[ mailto:nkunduru@us.ibm.com ]nkunduru@us.ibm.com
>201-266-7658
>IBM
>Technical Business Analyst
>Job Description:
>Identify and define requirements for the use of technology to improve
>Mortgage processes and systems. Analyze and document technical
>requirements of client’s unique lending/servicing enterprise and map
>those requirements within the context of IBM's Impact Lending Suite
>software solution. Act as the liaison between the business and
>development and provide a business and systems analysis service to
>clients. Balance technology and business issues as well as communicate
>appropriately with both technology and business experts.
>
>- Naga
Contact 7: September 29, 2011
Sent:Hello Mr. Naga,
Thank you very much for sending us the information for our mentor fact sheet. Please note, any phone calls or personal contact must be approved by our teacher ahead of time. We will be in touch with you soon. Thank you very much for your time.
-CJ and Dustin
Contact 8: Ocotber 23, 2011
Sent:

Hey Pete, I know it's been a while, but I have a question the VEX robotics project. I don't know how to make a model for the electrical portion of the project. Rob tells me you did the electrical part so I was wondering if you could give me an idea of where to start? thanks! CJ and Dustin


Recieved:

CJ and Dustin, basically you want to model all of the major components of the electrical system in your drawing and connect them with lines to represent wires.. what i had was (you should look up the appropriate ways to draw these) a battery with wires going to the microcontroller. from there - since everything plugs into this - i had lines going to each component. So i think we had like four motors, a few servos, and a camera, and receiver, so i placed them on the drawing roughly relative to where they are located on the robot. i'm pretty sure there's a standard depiction for a receiver and i just used a light source to represent the camera. Also another thing to keep in mind is that if the component has more than one wire (e.g. three wire motors) you need to represent that on the diagram. so i think that's enough to get you started. let me know if you have any more questions and good luck! Peter

Email :
Contact 9: October 23, 2011
BarBaros@aim.com
Discussed the background of the project, sent our blog information, and the mechanical and electrical aspects of the project. 

Contact 10: October 14, 2011 Face to Face for about half of an hour
Discussed the mechanical and electrical aspects of our project with Mr. Barrall. We also went over the basic idea of our project, and the tasks we hope to accomplish in the near future. We discussed what we have finished already and what we will soon be working on. 

Progress Poster MPI

log 6

Today and last Friday we witnessed presentaions of some of the groups.  The wave tank group and the interactive herbarium group presented so far.  I will be giving my first presentation on Wednesday, and my formal presentation will soon follow.

Brainstorming

            To start of the VEX robotics project, every student working on the VEX robotic project gathered around and discussed different ways to do an aquatic challenge.  We ended up with doing a similar challenge to the Coast Guard AIM challenge.  We also took a trip to the systems and engineering lab to examine the components of the VEX robotics that we have at our disposal.

Rationale Report

Before we can begin any construction on the VEX robot, we must first conduct a rationale report in order to find the best apparatus for each challenge.  For each challenge, we came up with three alternate solutions that could be used to complete each task.  The next part of this process is to decide which solution would be the best to complete each task.  To decide this, we came up with four sets of criteria that each apparatus has to meet in order to be considered a viable solution.  These criteria are access of materials, accuracy, ease of production, and efficiency.

The access of materials considers how readily available to us.  Accuracy determines how well each apparatus will be able to hit its target.  The ease of production is a measure of how difficult it will be to construct each apparatus.  The efficiency tells how well each apparatus will be able to complete each task with the given power supplies.

Challenge 1: Placing a Ball Through a Hoop	Solution 1:Claw	Solution 2:Catapult	Solution 3:Pinball Mechanism
Criteria
Access of Materials	5	3	2
Accuracy	4	2	2
Ease of Production	4	4	3
Efficiency	5	4	3
Total	18	13	10
Challenge 2:Towing a Friendly Vessel	Solution 1:Claw	Solution 2:Mechanical Arm	Solution 3:Magnets
Criteria
Access of Materials	5	5	2
Accuracy	4	5	5
Ease of Production	4	5	2
Efficiency	4	4	5
Total	17	19	14
Challenge 3: Sinking Enemy Vessel	Solution 1: Claw	Solution 2:Mechanical Arm	Solution 3:Bucket
Criteria
Access of Materials	5	5	4
Accuracy	3	4	4
Ease of Production	4	4	2
Efficiency	2	4	2
Total	14	17	12
Challenge 4: Planting a Buoy	Solution 1:Claw	Solution 2:Mechanical Arm	Solution 3: Slide
Criteria
Access of Materials	5	5	4
Accuracy	4	3	5
Ease of Production	4	4	4
Efficiency	5	3	4
Total	18	15	17
Challenge 5:Cutting the Finish Line	Solution 1: Scissors	Solution 2: Blade
Criteria
Access of Materials	5	4
Accuracy	4	5
Ease of Production	5	4
Efficiency	4	4
Total	18	17

Each of the alternate solutions was given a score from 1 to 5.  One is the lowest score and five is the highest score.  Each of the scores was added together, and the solution with the highest score will be the final solution.  The claw will be used to put the pall through the hoop and plant the buoy.  The mechanical arm will be used to sink the enemy vessel and tug the friendly vessel.  The scissors will be used to cut the twine.