Bergen Community College Summer Internship II, 2017

Bergen Community College Robotics Summer Internship II,2017

After the establishment of the Robotics club and until now we have been maintaining our position as an interesting project in the STEM club. As an intern of this project, we have been working since the start of the Summer I until today to make a Robot that will be participating in our upcoming competition. The name of the competition is VEX in the Zone where we have to stack a cone to a stable and a mobile goal to score a point and by parking a robot in the designated place. We have been preparing for the competition that is going to happen in our own college and we are hosting it. The most interesting part of this competition is that we will be competing against ourselves too. When I mean us, it conveys that we have divided our own group into two and we have been building the different robot with a distinct mechanism which will be competing against each other in the competition.

 We have invested our Summer I on building the robot and attaching the parts to the robot and experimenting it. After the 4 days break, our Summer II get started and now as we finish working on the building of robot now we have to work on programming and testing it.

Wednesday (07/05/2017)

Our first day of the Summer II we tested the mobile base grabber that we have made earlier. The expected capabilities of the grabber and its actual capabilities was not satisfactory for us, so we were having trouble making it work. Furthermore, we were testing the Pneumatic system for the grabber but it was not working so we have spent the whole day working on resolving the programming and attachment of this system.

Thursday(07/05/2017) 

On Thursday, we have work on the same thing that we could not resolve on Wednesday. Aoran, Charles, Bruce, and Deepa worked on the solving of the programming and the physical attachment of the Pneumatic system. Some of us were pumping air to the Pneumatic but the air was licking somewhere and the air was not reaching to the tip to help the grabber to lift up the Mobile Goal. After the long experiment and researching, we found the problem in the solenoid and fix the leak. Finally, we were able to lift up our Mobile Goal.

Monday(07/10/2017)

On Monday, we took apart the arm and the mobile base grabber from the base because the arm was not moving smoothly and the mobile base grabber was sticking more outward from the robot. Therefore we plan to change it by using a different mechanism. Charles came up with the idea of the different mechanism and starts working on the design. Bruce was working on the arm and Deepa was working on the making the locking mechanism. We spend our whole time taking all parts out from our old robot.

Tuesday(07/11/2017)

On Tuesday, we were still taking apart the part of our old robot and we were making the new mechanism for our new robot. Deepa, Aoran and Paul was working on the making of the locking system. Due to the difficulties of putting the axel and the screw to make this mechanism, it took the whole day to finish it in one piece. Charles was researching on the design for our new robot and Bruce was putting parts to join the arm for the robot.

Wednesday(07/12/2017)

When we were making the locking mechanism, we were having a trouble in putting the rubber band and the locking screw. But we finished making all the pieces separately that will be joined to make arms for our robot. Bruce was also done with the arms that will be used to lift a mobile base and he joined it to the base.

Thursday(07/13/2017)

We were done with joining all the parts to the robot and on Thursday we were testing the whole robot to see the speed and the smoothness to stack and the lifting of the mobile base.

Monday(07/18/2017)

On Monday, Charles and Aoran were experimenting the way to make the arm to fold and unfold by itself. They were using the rubber band to make the arm to fold easily but due to the tallness of the arm of the robot that doesn't work.

The new member who joined our group on Monday had worked on making the grabber that will go on the lifting mechanism of the robot.

Deepa and Bruce had worked on the making of the mobile goal grabber which will be placed in the base of the robot to allow the robot to stack a cone. Paul was cleaning the area while others were working on the seperate parts for the robot.

Tuesday(07/18/2017)

After working in all the mechanism, we were not satisfied with the locking mechanism and it was loose. So we have to take the locking mechanism out.

Wednesday(07/19/2017)

After taking apart the arm of our robot, we were trying to make a new mechanism for the new arm. Bruce and Deepa were trying to figure out the new mechanism for the arm to fold before Charles came with a new idea. Charles made the new mechanism in which he used the rubber band to make the arm to fold without using a locking mechanism.

Thursday(07/20/2017)

On Thursday, Bruce, Deepa and Charles were working on tightening the screw and checking if anything needed to be fixed. Then Charles added the chain, wired the robot and program it. 

Monday(07/24/2017)

As our competition is in August and we have not fully finished our robot. So, we are planning to finish making the mechanical parts of the robot in this week. In the coming weeks, we will be working on the programming and the wiring. On Monday, we worked on the arm because the chain that we used was not functioning properly. We were also thinking of the new claw to grab the cone.

Tuesday(07/25/2017)

We have been making different parts and test it every day but each day we have been spending our days on modifying the parts that we thought we have completed. On Tuesday, Bruce made a claw to grab a cone. Charles and I were working on the locking mechanism for the arms. Then Charles finished all the parts and attached it to the robot.

Wednesday(07/26/2017)

We have spent most of our time on Wednesday by testing the parts and fixing the problem. While testing the robot we found the problem on the mobile base. It was tilting and was not giving the stability to the mobile base and the stacking cones. We added some stand ups and make it stable.

Thursday(07/27/2017)

We have invested our whole Wednesday on the lifter of the mobile base. On Thursday, we planned to test the whole robot.

After the test, we found out that it was working fine and we worked on the tightening of the screw and the rubber band to make it more stable.

Monday(07/31/2017)

Monday, we were planning to work on fixing the 24x24x24 measurement of the robot. We have worked on the robot riding on the hump with the cone in its mobile base and also in the 20 point zone. So we make the grabber of the mobile base more stable and strong to ride on the hump and the 20 point zone.

Tuesday(08/01/2017)

We worked on the folding mechanism of the robot because we have difficulties on the folding of the arm. So we tried to put the rubber band to make it fold. Finally, we made the whole part of the robot stable and workable.

Wednesday(08/02/2017)

On Wednesday, Charles, me, Aoran and Bruce made the field for our VEX in the zone competition. We have worked on the laying of the mat, putting the stationary goal and the wall for the feld. It took all day for us to finish working on the field.

Thursday(08/03/2017)

We have already put the playground where we test our robot and working on the scoring of the goal in the stationary and the mobile goal.So, our Thursday was invested to practice for the competition.

Monday(08/07/2017)

Although all the parts in our robot are joined and are ready for the competition, we were still thinking of an idea on how to make a folding mechanism for the arm. On Monday, we spend most of our time on thinking of an idea and practicing the robot in the field.