Mechatronics Projects
Electronics
This project utilizes an arduino, servos, 3D printed parts, and beam-break sensors to create a foosball-like electronic game.
Robotics
Bio-Inspired - Elizabeth Childs, Nicholas Kim, Gamitha Wijekoon, Jacob Twig
The Flic Flac Spider is a newly discovered spider species in Morocco that moves by somersaulting away from its enemies. This is achieved by moving its legs in a flic flac motion, giving it the name: Flic Flac Spider.
Using only four servos, I worked on a team with three other engineers to recreate this bio-inspired robot. The goal was to travel 35 body lengths in 2 minutes. In the end, we traveled 35 body lengths in 6 seconds, scoring first out of 13 teams.
Task Oriented
Gathering
Mahogany was tasked with autonomously “herding sheep” (transporting balls) from a designated loading area to a scoring area with the ability to navigate holes in the playing field without losing any sheep. The robot needed to secure the balls throughout its journey so we designed a “playpen” structure that did not allow for the balls to leave the manipulation space of the robot. The robot also had a two-tier chassis that allowed us to carefully store the batteries on the bottom and the electronic components (microcontroller, motor driver, LEDs, potentiometer, voltage regulators, switch). The motors are attached via mounts secured underneath the bottom plate.
Fluid Sampling - Elizabeth Childs, Christoph Neisess, Marc Harron, Bailey Murtha, Benjamin Douty, Brian Inzerillo, Yair Pincever, Eric Ramming
The purpose of this project is to make an Over Sand Vehicle (OSV) that can navigate over sand and complete several tasks. The robot must navigate from a random spot with a random orientation behind a wall. After clearing the wall, it must first maneuver itself within 250 mm of an acidic chemical pool, take a sample, read the pH, and neutralize the acid.
Explosive Ordinance Disposal
As a result of the Vietnamese War many unexploded ordinances were dangerously left in Cambodia. While the majority of the ordinances have been found thanks to robotics, much of the area is still uninhabitable due to the ordinances that are unreachable due to the dense forest. To combat these challenges, I created a small, modular robot to navigate the underbrush.