The Final Reflections of Andy Meyer

Now that ME 250 has wrapped up it is time for me to make a final reflection on team work, the class, and other things.

To start off, I learned that design doesn’t come as second nature to everyone, there are those that would rather manufacture and those who would rather write reports for the team. I also learned that both design and manufacturing are very time intensive processes, however you can cut way down on the manufacturing time if the design is good and you plan out exactly how something will be manufactured. For instance I ended up redesigning a part while I was making it in the shop when I realized that the press fit that we had planned for it was largely unrealistic, in that it was not a good use of time to try to create a shaft within a few thousandths of what I wanted given the tools available to us. I also learned methods to make manufacturing go more smoothly which I will definitely be incorporating into my drawings in the future.

I learned that teamwork is key to not overburdening any one member of the team. When a team is first created the members should each go over their strengths and weaknesses and what they hope to contribute to the team. Once that is established, creating a plan of action, establishing a team leader, and delegating is the next step to being successful, that and always being prepared for team meetings. Things tend to go a lot more smoothly when there is a list of goals that need to be accomplished, this also takes out a significant chunk of time spent in meetings. Good time management is also what makes or breaks a team in the long run. To minimize time spent manufacturing, creating a list of goals and what tools/tooling methods you need to accomplish them is a good direction to head in. Basically the more organized you are, the more success you will have in the long run.

I also learned that having a successful team is not just about being organized. If you’re going to be spending a lot of time around your teammates it is also wise to become friends with them. People are a lot more understanding and willing to help you if they like you. This also greatly helps in the creative process because people tend to build off of each other’s ideas more readily if they know the person whose idea it is. Basically, you cannot remove the social element from any group so I suggest embracing it and using it to your advantage. If done correctly, this will create a team that is both creative and productive.

There are multiple ways the course could be improved in my opinion. First of all the lecture time is far too early for most engineers to reliably be able to wake up in the morning and attend lecture, at this point most of us are out of the dorms (aka not freshman) and all live on central campus. This means we have to plan an extra .5 hour of travel time into our already early schedule. Either moving the lecture to central campus or holding it at a later time will see a significant increase in attendance. Another thing that could improve the class overall would be to have a shop cheat sheet, or data packet. I always took the exam info packet with me into the shop because I could consult it on size of tight fit and free fit through holes, as well as other miscellaneous data. The Machinists Handbook, in my opinion, is impossible to navigate when I’ve never used it before and when one does find the formula one wants in the book (e.g. lathe and milling speeds) the speeds tend to be way higher than what Bob or Mark would recommend. Basically if there was a single sheet of paper which had the drill chart, lathe turning speeds for various tools, mill speeds for several scenarios, and methodology for tapping holes (so people didn't break as many taps), then there would be a lot less time wasted trying to find formulas in the machinist’s handbook.

There is not much more I could have done to improve my performance. I communicated with my team regularly via text or email and tried to get them to come to the shop with me. I suppose I need to work on delegating the tasks more effectively. This would have spread the time spent manufacturing or designing more evenly between group members.

All in all I am satisfied with the amount of time and effort I put into ME 250 and look forward to using the lessons I learned to help craft a better, more efficient group in the future.

Andy Out

Final Reflections: Matt Diffenderfer

I had done robotics when I was in high school, so when I heard that this class was very similar to it I leapt at the chance to take it. I’m studying Computer Engineering here, so ME courses are not up my alley, but had room for a flexible technical elective and thought this one would fit the bill. On my team I did a bit of everything, so when it came to the whole process of concepting, designing, and fabricating a robot, I was very familiar with the process, but on a larger scale. I knew how to use all the machines in the shop, am good enough to at least get my associate certificate in SolidWorks, and have cranked out many parts in my time. This experience was a little different though.

As I mentioned, I’m in Computer Engineering, so all of the mechanics that were stressed in the beginning of the course up to the exam were not kind to me. I haven’t had to deal with torque since high school. What I learned as far as the “ME” side of building a robot is that MEs use an absurd number of terms for things that just seem like common sense. I can’t say I’ll remember any of the terms that were introduced to me in this course as they’ll simply remain intuitive.

In terms of actual design and manufacturing, I can’t say I learned much, but instead got to work with a group of ME students who knew (in theory) about building robots but had never done it themselves. Coming up with ideas was very simple for me as most of these problems I’d seen before so I knew a solution which would work for them. The others had not, so seeing them come to agree with my solution or come up with other ones which were either completely impractical or solid ideas which I had not thought of was an interesting experience, as always. Manufacturing was a similar story; I knew how to design parts which were easy to manufacture, while some of the parts I didn’t touch ended up being rather sketchy. While the robot did work out in the end, I would have done parts of it differently.

Teamwork and time management really proved to be the most difficult things that our group dealt with this semester. We’re all so busy that scheduling this class around our schedules and so that it coincided with appropriate due dates and machine shop hours proved to be a hassle. We were all taking very different schedules this semester with very varying workloads, so choosing a time to meet proved difficult. I’ve never been a fan of teamwork, but this time around it seemed to carry more positives than negatives and I walk away with this class knowing some people better.

What I really, really disliked about this class was the bureaucracy of it all. Everything had to be strictly controlled, and that’s part of working at an institution, but I did not appreciate it at all. The machine shop had narrow windows, signing up to use machines spread across hundreds of students was impractical at the end, I hated the tool-tag system, and there was the press of due dates scattered across the semester which never aligned with when I had time. We really needed far more time to build and test our robot, as well as to make modifications and fixes at the end. Students need to be building their robot far sooner, and start designing even earlier. I felt far too relaxed at the beginning of the semester and far too pressed at the end. It’s really not hard at all to come up with a strategy of how to play the game – that doesn’t take a week. In high school, we decided on a strategy day one after everyone had read the rules and thought of a couple to discuss.

Finally, I didn’t end up getting along with Bob at all. My feelings generally wouldn’t matter except when he chose to be unhelpful and even kick me out while making a part. For someone who is suppose to help us along and aid us in making our parts, he cannot be rude and abrasive. I liked Mark however, as he was always kind, helpful and would understand if we made a mistake.

I mostly enjoyed my time in this class and will recommend it to a couple of friends with a few warnings. I wish there wasn’t a grade associated with this class. In the end, I’m disappointed that we were knocked out due to a lock-tite’d wheel. There wasn't even a best 2/3 or a true seeding match. Nor were we able to really test our robot on the day of the competition. That is another thing to improve - more control systems. The starvation without those was terrible.

We could have won it all...

Final Post

     Our final machine changed a significant amount during the semester. We started with a bigger machine with 4 wheels to the tiny Car RamRod with treads in the competition. It has been a great journey.

     Our final machine looks like a SandCrawler from Star Wars. It has a box shape with tall walls (to keep balls in), tank-like treads, and a ball eating roller in the front. It was only 6 inches wide so it could fit along the top of the wave field. The treads were used instead of wheels so we didn't need as much torque and could have more points of contact when near the top of the stairs. Even with these changes, we still couldn't get up the stairs; we didn't have enough torque. Although we couldn't get up the wave field, we were a pretty fast machine and could pick up and deposit balls quite easily.

    The roller, the ramp, and the box shape are the only things kept from the original design.  We had to use gears to make the treads go faster. Also, we needed to make a part to hold the gears in place. At first, it was closer to the machine, but that put our treads too far outside, so they wouldn't fit on top area. So, we have to move the gear box holder to the outside.

     Our machine worked well, except when it had to. It was working wonderfully the day before the time trials. At the time trials, our tread popped off and we couldn't move after picking up our first two balls. After the time trial, we fixed this problem by changing the idle wheels to sprockets. Then, at the competition, our screws with lock tite on them were screwed in too tight, so our machine couldn't move.

Below are pictures of our finished machine, Car RamRod.



 This is a great view of the treads and the roller in the front.

 

Here is the intimidating front view of Car RamRod. I would be so scared to be a ball and see this coming towards me. 
 
 

 This is a top view that shows the castle wall design for fitting the top onto the sides. You can also see some of the motor wiring and the motor for the roller (mounted on the top_.