Egg Drop Challenge - Iteration #2

Total Number of Achievements Earned:  18

Achievements made:


Brainstorming
-Create a sketch of one possible solution. Include labels.
-Create a sketch of another possible solution. Include labels.
-Create a sketch of a third possible solution. Include labels.

Material Size:
-Your materials fit inside a printer paper box
-Your materials fit inside a shoe box


Material Weight:
-Your materials weigh less than 500 grams.
-Your materials weigh less than 300 grams.
-Your materials weigh less than 200 grams.
-Your materials weigh less than 150 grams.
-Your materials weigh less than 100 grams.
-Your materials weigh less than 50 grams.


Drop Accuracy:
-You hit the butcher paper!
-You hit inside the third ring!
-You hit inside the second ring!
-You hit inside the first ring!


Egg Resilience:
-Your egg broke but the yolk remained intact.
-Your egg cracked but the yolk stayed inside and intact. 


Calculation Achievements:
-Describe an aspect of the event using calculus.


The best design was a double sided bowl with padding within it.  The padding was soft but also tight so no major movement was induced on the egg.


Changes:


I would have kept our original parachute on the design to decrease the velocity that it would fall as our speed caused our egg to crack.  

Glider of Pure Awesome

The Challenge is that we have to build a glider that will fly for the longest amount of time and the furthest distance.


Brainstorming:

• a single large wing
• a large wing and a smaller tail

Criteria
We must build a glider using the provided materials that will glide as far as possible and for the longest amount of time


Constraints

• can only use materials provided
• must be able to last more than one throw
• must actually fly

Develop Solution

Our test flight showed that we needed to add weight to the front of our glider lest it immediately flip back at us like a boomerang.

Also after more flights we placed the weight at the correct position for optimal flight.

I want the glider to be able to float on the wind and from my original plans the wings were smaller but our group decided to enlarge them for the most possible lift force.

Competition:

Our glider performed very well when launched from an angle to the wind that was greater than zero although I actually thought that zero degrees would be optimal.  Once launched at an angle it would float on the wind quite well.

Changes:


If i could change anything on our glider it would definitely be our means of attaching the frame to the tissue paper and the frame to itself as the hot glue was messy and would not hold very well.


Overall a success.

Super Marble Sorter of Awesome

Brainstorming Ideas: 

Here are some of the original ideas we had that we designed on some square graph paper:

Decision Matrix:

Final Decision Solution: 

Design Modifications: 

The one major design modification we made was adding a second RoboTX controller as we needed two more outputs for one of the last pneumatic pistons to seperate the marbles.

Final Design: 

Reflection:

Our design accomplished the goals we set out to make it do.  I really liked the way it worked and it was neat to know that it was purely autonomous  and would react from sensors that were wired in instead of buttons pressed by humans.

What we could have done differently -

• modular components
• make easier to rearrange
• better to alter or fix a specific sensor or actuator
• wouldn't have to alter entire system
• redesign when needed
• we should have done clean restarts
• we were lazy but also had put a lot of work into original design
• would have been simple in the beginning but got harder to do later

Results - Our process does fulfill all of the parameters of the sorting project:

• sorts 15 marbles in under 2 minutes
• can differentiate between marbles and sort each kind out separately
• completely autonomous

What I learned is that planning is key.  Like many things that my generation does we jumped into the doing part of the system and really just had some mental plans which don't always fair well when the laws of physics are applied.  If we wrote out a checklist and actually came up with a game plan and divided up work we would have been sorting machine making machines.

Challenges posed working in a design team are the need to have everyone feel like they are heard and to incorporate or at least hear out everyone's ideas.  Or group was very agreeable and we all contributed our own ideas and worked well together with everyone feeling appreciated and heard.

The purpose of this design problem can be looked at as either an advanced project incorporating multiple sensors and actuators or more specifically learning how to create an autonomous system that can take its own readings/measurements and make actions based off of the information gathered.

RoboPro Counter and Sub-Program (Double Post)

Here is my counter program which has been turned into a sub-program:




Here is the sub-program


The benefits of using sub-programs are easily repeatable code segments, organization and making complex programs simple.

Flow Chart

Flow charting is similar to using a map to plan out travel because it is mapping out all the possibilities of a situation and giving you results to them depending on the inputs you put into the chart.

How to Tell if You are Famous

The Robotic Carriage

Here is a work in progress before we finished our final product above.

The conclusion:

Describe why it is important to have branches in programs.

It is important to have switches in the program so that you can account for different changes in the scenario.

Describe an everyday application of a normally closed switch that has not been given as an example.

A main use for open switches in everyday life is for alarms. The magnets cause theswitches to go off in multiple ways to provide for the greatest security possible.

Describe an everyday application of a normally open switch that has not been given as an example.

A great example of this is a doorbell, when you press the switch, the bell rings.

Here is the program flow chart and the final design:

The Revolution Will be Tweeted and Its News Feed Will be Updated

The big reason for the revolution to grow large in Egypt was cencorship.  But this wasn't any old fashioned burning of books but was a modern version of silencing information.  Protesters had begun to protest in the streets and the government was none too happy. 
The simple solution for the government?  Kill the internet and all other information gaining systems i.e. land lines and wireless providers.  Before the cencorship people became hysterical and some last minute pleas went out through the web to ask for help in the great battle for their freedom. 

There are some interesting and practical items here that are going to be used to further the revolution.

1.  goggles - these could be used to protect from tear gas that the government forces use against protesters
2.  a rose - this could be a symbol to show that these people are normal people and want to extend their hands out for the love and support of others in other places
3.  a pot's lid - i assume that this is used as a sheild to defend from attacks from the suppressive forces of the government who most likely have batons and what not
4.  spray paint - I assume that this will be used to tag the buidling and area around the protest to show the words and ideas of the protesters
5.  sneakers - these will probably be used to run away and avoid the suppressive forces and continue the protesting

Content is King

 One career I really want to follow in life is a combination of physics and engineering.  Both fascinate me in the ideas to learn about and the things to make using the knowledge from both.  I personally want to make a robotic hand in the very near future.  Here's a picuture of a model that is close to what I want mine to turn out like:



I know of an organization called FIRST robotics which I participate in with the school robotics club and it has its own blog to convey information about what it stands for, updates on recent robotics, and information for the competition season which it holds once a year.

Activity 3.1.1 Inputs and Outputs

5. Unchecked 0 No Voltage
6. Checked 1 Yes Voltage
7. It switched to the oposite. Its always on until you turn it off by pushing the switch and holding it down.
9. 43-5000
11. 1521
12. 1360
13. You are able to make the motor and buzzer go either faster or slower
14. You can switch the wiring connections to change the directions of the current.
15. The magbets turn on the reed switch
16. The reed switch behave open.
18. The photoresistor sends a verying aount of signal depending on how close the lamp is
19. When the phototransistor is exposed to the lamps light it closes the circut turning it on.
20. The phototransistor will normally always be open unless it has light.
21. It can be used as a closed digital input if constantly exposed to light.

Conclusion
1. It shows the static state of the 3 connections and what connections are closed or open.
2. A computer will constantly check the voltage every micro second and average out the values be it high or low and give you a verying value. Ex. 5000 then 0000 would yield 2500.
3. As the resistor heats up it excite the electrons and makes it harder to send electrons through that excited secction

Basic Units

L = meters

t = seconds

m = kg

a = meters/second/second (direction is relevant)

v = meters/second (direction is relevant)

density = mass/volume (kg/m*m*m)

gravity = 9.8 meters/second/second

F = mass x acceleration

E = joules

P = joules/second

Survival at Sea Game

We were given a situation:  our boat had sunk and were were in a life raft.  We have fifteen items that are salvageable that we have to rank from most important to least important.

Here is my prioritized list:

1. water
2. radio
3. rations
4. chocolate
5. rope
6. fishing kit
7. mirror
8. mosquito netting
9. opaque plastic sheeting
10. sextant
11. petrol/oil mixture
12. shark repellent
13. rum
14. floating seat cushion
15. map of North Atlantic

My top two choices are water and the radio as all humans need water and the radio could be used to broadcast and receive messages.

I had a hard time determining whether or not petrol would be of any use to us and decided that over all it was not but potentially had some uses in the long run for instance boiling water.

My group only ranked a few things similarly.  The only true similarity was that water and food was at the top or near the top of the list.

My choices were similar to the official choices but the official list had the mirror first and the petrol/oil mix second and then water.  My list has water first and then radio and then food.  They seem to think that the mirror and petrol are most important for the use of signaling and although I have similar ideas with them I decided that sustenance is more important in a survival situation.

Tennis Ball Team Building Game

The challenge:

• you must pass a tennis ball to every member
• it cannot touch the ground
• be the fastest team

We decided to roll the ball down our hands like a chute and won the first round.  We then improved it by making a vertical chute in which our fingers would just skim the edge of the ball.

Our plan was executed quite well, we only dropped the ball once and that was in practice.  When getting timed we had the lowest time for both of our designs.

We thought out of the box very well so I think we should do that the same if we were to do this challenge again.

We went quickly through our planning and some members were not involved enough or did not know what the overall plan was so we should take more time to get everyone involved and in the know.