BLOG #5 - March-ing into Innovation: Updates and Preparations

EMUiNVENT InvenTeam

Tech Department Updates - Part 1…Electronics Exploration


3/6/24 

Suhani met up with mentors Chris and Joe to refine our final design and begin discussion on the electronic components.

 

Final design refinement:

  • Optimized device stability by rethinking linear actuator placement and mass distribution
  • Considered adding a sensor to track the direction and amount of force and adding countermeasures for excess applied force


Electronic component discussion:

  • Considered obstacle avoidance sensors coupled with radio direction finding
  • Reference videos online that make obstacle avoiding, line-following robots
    • Suhani and Weiran will be creating a Functional Block Diagram with the materials used in the video


3/12/24 

Suhani met with our mentor Rick to discuss the electronic aspects of our design and Arduino implementation. 

 

Our exploration for the electronic components of our device focused on how to have a self-moving device that can stop throughout the location it’s in (e.g. house) and smoothly get to the user location with some form of app.

 

We’ve been inspired by the use of infrared sensors in Roombas and are considering also implementing an infrared sensor for our device to avoid objects while traveling to the user.

Meeting #18 - Convention Coordination 


3/17/24 

The focus was on prepping for the Regional Invention Convention competition at EMU on the 22nd. Now you may be wondering, why are we even bothering with participating in this competition when EurekaFest is coming up and preparation for that hasn’t been entirely completed yet? Well, we’re planning to use this competition as a platform to gain feedback on our final design before manufacturing and also introduce what we’re doing to our community! 

 

Here’s what we did:

  • Refined and added to the design for the competition (this is separate from our final prototype for LMIT and is a version of the design made by our 2nd design group earlier in the year when we had split into two design teams)
    • Weiran, Jacob, and Amy will be presenting at the competition 
    • Amy will be adding the discussed additions to the mini model that will be presented
    • Weiran is finishing up the logbook and poster board for the competition 
  • Discussed ways to gain feedback on our final design
    • Grab bar optimization - give people pipe cleaners to bend into bars to place on a seat 
    • Overall improvement - provide a feedback form and whiteboards 

 

We also looked at our ongoing final design’s electrical components:

  • Internet connection with Arduino and ESP32
  • Line following and color recognition mechanisms to implement

Tech Department Updates - Part 2


3/18/24 

We met up with our mentor Rick today to discuss making a mini model of our final design and decide the first electronic component design. 

 

We will… 

  • 3D print our final design’s base
  • Make a color recognition robot 
  • Incorporate obstacle avoidance into the color recognition robot