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.