Science and Mechatronics Aided Research for Teachers with an Entrepreneurship Experience (SMARTER)
2015: Week IV
Marc Frank and Ramona Fittipaldi
This week we ran tests to measure the energy expenditure of a robotic arm. We gathered static test data on the shoulder at various angles from 0 to 90 degrees. The program measured the angle degree, current, voltage, and time. We varied the proportional-integral-derivative control system in order to stabilize the arm movement. After completing the static tests, we performed various dynamic tests using five trajectories. We ran tests at different speeds while adjusting the degree of just the shoulder, just the elbow, both the elbow and shoulder at the same time, and elbow and shoulder at different times. Again, we measured the angle degree, current, voltage, and time. The image below displays the part of the code from LabView that generates the graphs and data logging in excel, which we will analyze next week. On Wednesday, Ken Gracey from Parallax presented 00001010 Microcontroller Projects in 00010100 Minutes (10 Microcontroller Projects in 20 Minutes). He demonstrated different ways to incorporate microcontrollers in the classroom. Ken Gracey also informed us about several new Parallax related innovations.
Lauren Schulman and Brian Palacios
We began the week on Monday completing the mold for our samples. We discovered we couldn’t remove our initial samples from the PVC tubing mold. We had to change our molding strategy. We spent the latter half of Monday and the first half of Tuesday creating a Plexiglas molding that enabled us to easily remove our specimens. We visited Oleg in the basement who provided a big help in prototyping and creating our mold. We also cut some of Kathy’s hair, cleaned it with acetone, and cut it into 3mm pieces. We then began crafting our samples using cement, fly ash, and glass microspheres for part 1 of the research. Unfortunately, we discovered on Thursday that we used the wrong fly ash for our samples; we used Class C fly ash instead of Class F fly ash. The densities of the two classes vary significantly, which plays a major role in our research. We then remade our part 1 samples using the Class F fly ash. To get ahead on the research, we closed out the week by making the samples for part 2 of our research, which included human hair.
Horace Walcott and Brian Lam
Much of this week was spent improving and troubleshooting the laboratory apparatus for our experiment, due to not having received our materials at this time. We printed a mold for the replica fish, but it did not have enough width, and the fins of the model were not resolved. An improved mold should be printed on Monday. We have begun cutting exoskeletons to place into the molded replicas, but may or may not use them based on the material properties of the replica. The replica was tested on servo motors using both the BASIC Stamp and Arduino microcontrollers. The flow chamber was also tested. Live fish were placed in the flow chamber with a vertical rod acting as a bluff body, and video was captured from below the fish. The fish videos were separated into individual frames, and each collection of frames has been processed using MATLAB software to track the fish’s movement and body shape. There were some issues with the contrast between the fish and its surroundings, but the experimental setup has been improved for future use, and the majority of data collection will hopefully be completed next week.
Hau-yu Chu and Daniella DiLacqua
The highlight of this week was the visit from Parallax. Ken Gracey, Parallax’s CEO, was on hand to demonstrate some projects that can be completed with the Boebot and some sensors. The roving Jukebox was a particular delight. We deeply respect Ken’s commitment to improving educational outcomes and possibilities through the student-friendly, yet technologically complex products from Parallax.
In addition, our team made progress further exploring AppInventor and Littlebits. We are using this period to seek out every opportunity for STEM learning for our students and ourselves. We also explored some of the consumer Augmented Reality applications on the market to get a better understanding of complexity of the AR projects in the Mechatronics Lab. Jared, our talented and dedicated Ph.D. candidate in charge, has designed an Augmented Reality App (pictured) to use with a classic Control Lab experiment. We are hoping to put our pedagogical experience to use and design assessments for use along with the App in the laboratory experience.
Phil Cook and Iulian Irimina
This week we became familiar with the theory of PID control and took a closer look at how control systems work, specifically through analysis of a mechanical engineering lab activity which uses PD control to control a dc servo motor using an app. Jared is working on developing an app aimed at helping undergraduate engineering students studying the motor dynamics and control systems. Using the app, the students can observe the system dynamics, observe how the dynamics change when you make changes to the controller, and how they can interpret the results that come from the app. On Thursday, we met with Ken Gracey, the Parallax CEO, who showcased some of the latest projects using the company’s robots designed for education such as: Propeller, Boe-Bot with Basic Stamp and Arduino.
YaQi Xiong and Tchnavia D. Merrick
This week, we focused on testing capillarity in different types of soil, designing a structure that would model capillarity and designing a probe that would detect soil moisture. Once the probe detected water in soil due to capillary action, an LED would light up and music would play, which involved programming the Arduino. After two days of trial and error, the Arduino was able to play music and the LED lit simultaneously. We also designed a probe that was able to detect salt water conductivity. A highly saturated salt water solution was necessary to provide a good conductivity. We were also able to see capillarity in two of the four types of soils immediately and are awaiting the results of the fine grain soils to see if capillarity also occurs. Although we did observe capillary rise in the model constructed, the final design of the structure to be used has not been finalized.
