Winter Internship, 2018

Bergen Community College Robotics Winter Internship 2018

 As we have always started our internship for robotics with some new members, this time we also got the opportunity to work with some new faces.

Team Members:
Matthew Newell(New member)
Alexandra Cortez
Deepa Banjara
Daniel Munoz

Project Mentor:
Bruce Benjamin

Working time and Location:
Monday-Thursday 10AM - 12PM, Room S-327

January 02, 2018:

We spent the first day filling out the application to work. We also spent some time planning and organizing the working area. According to our plan, we will be spending this internship on building a robot for "Sumobot Competition" which we are planning to do as a fundraiser program during spring, 2018.

    

January 03, 2018

On January 3rd, we worked on a prototype that will be helpful in determining the actual size and the design of the robot. We decided to work on a prototype instead of making a design because we wanted to familiarize ourselves with various parts. So that we can change or work on the thing that we are having difficulty with. Daniel Munioz, Alex Cortez and Deepa Banjara started to make their own protype robot and Matthew spend some time learning and understanding RobotC which is the programming language used to operate it.

January 5, 2018

Due to the winter storm, we could not work on 4th of January. On Friday, we were working on the same prototype that we were building on Wednesday. I was working on the wiring of the robot. Daniel was updating the Alienware, installing Inventor and robot C in the computer. Alex was working on the design and also gathering ideas of her prototype. Matthew was learning to program and the mechanism of the robot.

January 8, 2018:
On January 8 Monday, as I was done working on making the prototype model when I was trying to test the robot one of the motors was not working. I spend that day testing the robot, changing the motors, batteries. Alex and Daniel were also working on their prototype, Matthew was learning, helping me building a prototype and also programming the robot.

January 9, 2018:
On Tuesday, I was working on the same motors that I was working on Monday. Alex was trying to use a different gear system in her prototype which will help us to understand the gear system required for the robot, Daniel was working on the different mechanism as his own prototype. Matthew was working on the programming and also helping me build the robot. I also add motor to the claw which will be added to the robot after it is done.

January 10, 2018:
On January 10th we started to learn about how we could improve the current design depicted above. We decided to use 4 Omni-directional wheels instead of the 2 standard small wheels and 2 Omni-directional wheels. We also managed wires in a more effective manner. Dan worked on future designs, Alex was learning more about motors and other mechanisms that could possibly be used in the future. Deepa organized some of the nonworking tools and set them aside in a box labeled broken. Matthew changed wheels, organized wire, and programmed.

January 11, 2018:
On the last day, we focused on what we did well, what we did wrong, how we could do better next time and overall reflected upon the internship. Communication is really important and from the first day to today we improved significantly in that area. For example, sometimes people would do things without notifying others and it would create unnecessary work, we now know to pay attention to that in order to be more efficient. Our organizational skills improved because of cleaning up the work environment.

January 12, 2018:

On January 12, I was testing my robot to distinguish its effectiveness. As it was the last day of my internship I was making sure all the parts are rigid and stiff. I also made sure that all of the tools are organized properly.