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.
