Final build post 3

Day 5-  Well really all we did today was wiring and programming. The robots have already been built and we are working on our computer programming and getting all the variables done. 

Day 6- so. Today we got the programming done with and have started doing a few test runs. They didn't really turn out so well. So we added the protection wrapping on the two robots and hopefully it would work better. I think it helped. Not much but still. Anyways our robot seems to be having some major problems which could greatly affect our competition tomorrow. Hopefully it will be fixed and ours can at least put up a fight against others but I honestly don't know and won't know until Monday since I'm getting my wisdom teeth pulled. 

Final build post 2

Day 4- well today we fixed the arms gearing and put the other arm on the second robot. We may again have to re gear it but that's not really a major problem. Anyways Dillon and Shoe were working on the programming and apparently it's not hard just annoying. So it looks like we can program the robots and controllers to do specific things with certain buttons. This is a major asset for us and I would say an advantage against other groups. 

Last build post 1.

Well on the first day we got the first base done and got half of the gearing on. We also finished the arm and it's base but at the time it wasn't attached. 

Day-2:  I was absent on this day due to a dentist appointment, but it appears that the first robot was finished. The arm doesn't really seem to work right and if it does, it is impossible to control right. And it seems that my group or at least two of themstarted the second robot. Well I had thought we were only doing one and after the first one worked perfectly and even then only maybe would we start the second robot. Looks like the time I was gone they jumped at the chance to completely screw with what I thought we agreed with but I wasn't here so I don't really get a say in things. Whatever. Our robot will not be able to get the 10 point bonus while Josh and Dillon seem ever so optimistic it may be able to. Well guess we need to make sure that we can actually pick up balls and put the over the wall and score the mini soccer balls in the top goal or something. Guess the best we can do now depends on how hard we work to improve and make better this robot. 

Day 3: Well today we got a bit done I guess. The two robots well I'm still kind of against it but it is what it is. We accomplished a bit today I guess. We got farther on the second robot and apparently they are going to be the same exact thing as each other. So while Josh was working on the second one. Dillon and I were working on getting the first ones arm to work and we define tilt ran into problems. It seems that the motor isn't strong enough. We had it geared and are switching it tomorrow. We may have to go direct or gear it better but what happens happens.  Anyways besides the problems with the arm we have found problems in the wiring. The wiring does change from regular since we have jumpers in and are using two robots. There is definitely problems with getting one to work how we want it to while working on the boundaries set by the cortex. So in the end we are going to try and manually program it from the computer as long as shoe can find the software. We will be the first of our class to actually manually program. Hell we will be the first of the school to do so. This could either be very beneficial or a complete waste of time. Guess we will find out Monday. 

Build Reflection

Well our robot has a rather distinctive feature to it which is that it is two robots.  We have a cord and by using a jumper chip and two controllers plus a cable connecting the controllers, we can have practically two robots on the field.  We have two separate drivers with the robots doing different things giving us an advantage in the playing field.  Another feature of our robots is that they are geared.  At the start we had one with large gears for power and the other regular but that didn't work so well so we got some more regular gears and they are both moderately fast and powerful.  They have all the speed and power we need for them so it works out fine.  Two things I would've done differently would be to get more cord for the robot, but we couldn't really do that since the protection we used on it well there wasn't anymore of it so we couldn't really do that anyways.  Another thing I would've done differently would have been to start with the regular gears instead of trying the big gears since it wasn't worth it and in the end we only wasted time.  To be honest for the competition I thought we would do okay.  I could guarantee that we weren't going to finish first while others in my group were rather.. optimistic.. about that.  In the end it looks like we did pretty good.  I wasn't there for a day and apparently the group really screwed up on one of the matches, but it seems like we will at least finish in the top three from what I know has taken place.  Maybe not, but I'm pretty sure we will.

Free Build #2

Well for this build our robot is doing rather well. Our group has finished building and everything looks like it will do good in the competition. Since our group finished second in the relay build, we were given a jumper another controler and a cord to connect our controllers together. So since we had this we decided to take advantage of that and build two robots. Our budget is perfectly fine. We have plenty of money left and haven't really had too buy that much. Well there was really only one major problem and that was working on the gearig for the second robot. After messing around with it, we got it so we didn't have to buy more wheels and didn't have to buy more gears. 

Our group is working together great I guess. In the group Dillon and I are the main builders while Josh and Lance help with smaller things. Over all everything has turned out fine. Our robot has been built and things are looking good. 

Relay Build

Well I found out that I and my group work decently under pressure. We never really had to rethink about how our group works because we already divided the work and worked like that. The only difference was we had to copy what was already made and we didn't have instructions nor could we go on our own.  When looking at problems like this it is important to stay calm and work together. Even if only one person could work on the robot at a time, you still have to stay as a group and work together on what is needed to succeed. I think my group did fine and I wouldn't do anything differently than we already did. 

 On the second day we got to work with   partners and it made things easier faster and more efficient. More people could be working at the same time even if they were working on different things or we're working on the same things. I still prefer working with partners since it was better and made things much more efficient. 

Free. Build

For the free build, our group used the 5 wheel omni drive. Advantages to this was that it was faster and could move well and if you could control it well, it was very  controlled and easy to keep in a straight line. Disadvantages this were that it was harder to learn how to control and was harder to build. If we had the chance to start over, we wouldn't really change anything and I wouldn't copy any other group. 

Drive Trains

  One drive train is the tank direct. This is where the motors are hooked directly to the wheels. An advantage to this is that it is easy to make and has rather simple wiring. A disadvantage for this system though is that the wheel is only controlled by the motor so it has less control. It can be somewhat controlled speed wise but not very much, it's mostly straight as fast it can go. Also another disadvantage to this drive system would be that the robot stutters and doesn't have smooth turning. This leads to less control. 

  Another drive train is the geared tank drive. A positive for this drive train is that it uses less motors than a direct geared. Another advantage is that it can have more speed or more power than a direct drive. The problem with that thoug is that if you have more power then it will have less speed or if it has more speed then it will have less power. Another disadvantage is that it is more complicated to set up and this could lead to having problems with getting the directions of the robot right. The geared drive still does stutter and shake like the direct and if you have more gears the robot will be larger and weigh more. 

   Another type of drive train is the holonomic system. This drive train uses four omni wheels and has them positioned at the corners of the robot in a 45 degree angle.  A disadvantage to this drive train is that each wheel must be driven independently. A positive for this robot though is that it is agile and can move around/turn easier. Another disadvantage for this robotic drive train is that it is very complicated to set up and to drive well.  Also a problem for this robot is that it has no potential for any high pushing force. 

Robot race changes

I wouldn't really have changed anything. Our group used the 5 omni wheel drive system and it worked very well for the most part. We had very good runs for the most part. The only real problem our group had was finding out one of our motors was stripped. After we found out that it was stripped we replaced it and everything worked fine. Plus with the five omnis t was pretty cool to see the thing driving sideways on the course. 

Compare/Contrast. Tumbler vs protobot

Well let's see here, the protobot was definitely harder to build than the tumbler.  The base was about the same though on the protobot instead of having two motors for each side, we only had one with a gear system.  The gear system wasn't too challenging to make though.  As I said the base was about the same for the two yet on the protobot we have also added an arm to pick up tennis balls for the tournament.  Now on the tumbler the wiring was fairly easy.  Yet on the protobot we were having several difficulties such as we were looking at the wrong page or we assumed that the wires were put on the same way as in the tumbler I.E. red wire to red wire but it wasn't and it was supposed to be red to black which took my group a while and a few tries to figure out what was wrong with it.  The protobot was harder really just because the wiring was more complex and there was more to it and more parts needed.  Also on the protobot when we did inventory we had to accommodate for what we already had instead of just starting from scratch which may or may not earn our group a penalty or two for extra parts.  Now the tumbler was rather easy and everything went mostly perfect. The only thing that was surprising and difficult would be driving in a straight line. Now for both of them really I wouldn't do much or really anything to go back and make it more "efficient" since both seem already really efficient and the problem with driving straight with the tumbler can be chalked up to human error. 

Inventory

Well if I could change one thing about our groups inventory it would to have not forgotten the extra part of the motor for all four motors.  This doesn't really matter though since all groups had forgotten this part so there was no time penalty for anyone but if our group hadn't forgotten it then we would already have started the competition with a lead being that of four or so seconds.  Other than that our inventory was perfect.  We had no extra pieces and beside the extra parts of the motors that everyone forgot, we had no missing parts.

Team

Well its a new year and that means a new team for the robotics class.  This year I'm working with Lance Garrison, Dillon McLean, and Joshua Houchlei.  The team name is Greese Monkey.  Its strange but it is creative and that's what matters.  Anyways the team seems like we will do good.  It has only been one day and already we have made good progress on our build.  We are building a tumbler which is really just the bottom half of the protobot.  Anyways we have already gotten the wheels on and are building the base.  We will finish it tomorrow and I can easily say others may not.  Our group realized that the motors were missing a part and we got that part.  This year though for getting more parts, you are penalized.  Yet it doesn't really matter since according to the teacher all the other groups don't have one either and half of them havn't even realized this yet.  Now back to our group;  well we seem like a very strong building team with Dillon being so far the most creative mind in the group followed by Josh.  This group will do good in the long run though.

Career and Daily Life with Robots

Well the career I'm looking at going into after College would probably be in engineering.  I'm not sure what branch I would like to go into for engineering and personally I won't start choosing until a few years have passed.  Also if all else fails I plan on getting a minors in business during college that way if all else fails I can work at and eventually take over my fathers company which is a contracting company.  Engineers use science, economic, social and practical knowledge to design/build/maintain several different things such as machines, structures, processes etc.  Now in an engineering career it seems pretty obvious that I would have to deal with robots on quite possibly a day to day basis.  When designing buildings I may use an automated program to start the design, when building I could work with robots for several different instances such as in welding something together a robot may be used to get the welds that would consume to much time or be too hard for a human.  Now in maintaining things I could work with a robot by having one help fix up the problems with whatever it is that I happen to be maintaining or I could very well be fixing up a robot and keeping it in working conditions to continue its tasks.  Now in everyday life there are robots around us if we are simply paying attention.  Some places I see robots in would be the automated drink dispensers at fast food restaurants.  Other places would be at your own home if you happen to own one of the robotic vacuum cleaners.  Somethings that robots help make easier in life would be vacuuming since now their are robots that will vacuum for you.  Another thing that robots make easier in life would be as said earlier in welding.  Something that would be too time consuming or hard for a human can be done by a robot.  Robots can improve the life of others in many ways of of which is by means of safety.  Researchers are always needing to collect samples of whatever it is they are researching and say that would be the gas in an active volcano.  To collect that gas could be considered extremely dangerous if not that suicidal.  Today though instead of sending a scientist out there to collect the sample they can simply deploy a robot to do it in their stead.  Robots have changed the way we interact to the world by several ways.  Some are for good some may be for the worse.  In a good way; Robots have made driving safer.  Today there are cars that can react faster than a human and stop before an accident happens saving lives.  But for the bad side of things robots could very well have humans losing skills that used to always be used in work.  Today Robots are doing the more dangerous and hard tasks meaning that people don't have to do it themselves.  Now when the human doesn't do that action anymore the skills needed to do it start fading from generation to generation leading to the eventual generation that may not even know what it is at all.  All in all though personally I would say robots have had a positive impact on the world. 

Robot timeline 320 B.C.-2008

• 320 B.C.- The first idea of a robot came from the Greek philosopher Aristotle.  He had said "“If every tool, when ordered, or even of its own accord, could do the work that befits it... then there would be no need either of apprentices for the master workers or of slaves for the lords.”
• 1495 - Around this year the famous designer Leonardo da Vinci drew a model for a humanoid robot.
• 1700-1900 - Between these years several automatons were made.  One of which was a mechanical duck that could do several actions such as flapping its wings, moving its neck and eating food.  This was made by Jacques de Vaucanson. Example Below.
• 1913 - Henry Ford makes and installs the first moving conveyor belt assembly line in his car factory speeding up the production time.
• 1920 - The word robot is first introduced by Karel Capek.  He used the word to describe the machines that resemble humans which had enslaved society by the robots that had served the people in his play Rossums Universal Robots.
• 1932 - Japan made the first real robot which was a small wind-up toy about 15 cm tall that walked on its own.
• 1937 - Alan Turing's paper "On Computable Numbers" becomes public which starts the computer revolution.
• 1941 - Isaac Asimov writes the short story "Liar!" where he describes the Three laws of robotics which are   
• 1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
• 2. A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
• 3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
• 1950 - Alan Turing creates what later becomes know as the "Turing Test" which is to determine if a machine could truly think for itself and to pass the robot must not be different than a human during conversation.
• 1954 - The first robot "arm" is made by George Devol and Joe Engleberger.  This robot later became the first robot to work at an industry.  It worked at General Motors doing dangerous and repetitive tasks.
• 1957 - Sputnik is launched into space by The Russians.  Sputnik was the first artificial orbiting satelite.
• 1964 - The IBM 360 becomes the first computer to be mass-produced.
• 1969 - Neil Armstrong lands on the moon by the U.S. using the latest space, robotic and computing technology.
• 1977 - The movie Star Wars is released inspiring many new researchers because of the famous robots R2-D2 and C-3PO.
• 1986 - Honda launches a program to build a walking humanoid robot.
• 1994 - The eight legged robot Dante II successfully  descends into Mt. Spur to collect gas samples.
• 1997 - The robot "Deep Blue" beats the world chess champion Garry Kasparov at a game of chess.  Also the first robocup is held in Japan.
• 1998 - The company LEGO releases its first Robotics Inventions System.
• 1999 - Sony releases a robotic dog called AIBO which had the ability to learn, entertain and communicate with the owner as if it were a real dog.
• 2000 - The robot ASIMO is released by Honda.  ASIMO was the next generation of humanoid robots for its series.
• 2004 - The smallest robot is released by Epsom.  It is a tiny helicopter 7 cm high and weighs 10 grams.  This helicopter was intended to be used during natural disasters as a flying camera.
• 2005 - The first replicating robot was made by researchers from Cornell University.  Each robot was made up of a small tower of computerized cubes which linked together through magnets.
• 2008 - The Robotic vacuum cleaner called "Roomba" has sold over 2.5 million units throughout the world.
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• Information From   http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/sciencefacts/technology/historyofrobotics.html
  

Robots and robotic careers

          A robot can be many different things.  When  I hear the word the first thing I think of would be the classical box robot all in silver with different lights and wires surrounding it or R2-D2.  But really a robot can be so much more or so much less.  Personally a robot to me is something that can help people do things physically faster and better.  I also think a robot is anything that isn't "alive" to say yet can still operate and move around as if it is whether it be by a simple controller or by itself.

          There are many jobs in robotics.  One of these jobs is a robotics engineer.  These people are the ones who make, maintain, develop more applications for them and conduct research to expand their potentials.  This job has been rapidly increasing over the recent years with all of the advances in technology.  Every time the technology is upgraded then so are the robots and what they can do.  These engineers are also different within their own job.  Some are considered visionary and they are the ones who design the experimental robots that can have a vast range of applications such as for medical purposes or for military purposes.  Others are the people who design new models of existing robots and improving them.  Then the middle men who design new experimental robots in tested fields. Robotic engineering didn't really exist before robotics but engineers did and they would have had to some other branch such as wiring, electrical etc  engineering.  

        Another job in robotics would be the mechanical designers.  These are the people that create the robots.  Usually they use a computer aided design and tools to help them.  Mechanical designers don't always design just robots though.  They can also design things such as refrigerators.Mechanical designers also have to a good amount of knowledge on drafting and designing to help them build the robots.  Before robots existed mechanical designers would as said earlier make other appliances such as refrigerators, heaters, etc..

Bios: 2013

Dillon McLean 

Dillon was born on March 12 1996 and is 17 years old. His favorite color is red and his favorite food is Stromboli. Dillon was born in Alabama and eventually moved to Mason. His hobbies are playing Moba games, playing volleyball, and drawing. Dillon has some experience in robotics, and likes building and wiring. He took robotics because it seemed interesting. 

Zach Quin

Zach was born on October 28 and is 17 years old. When he was younger he lived in Grand Haven before moving to Mason. Zach's hobbies are playing tennis and hanging out with friends.  Zach likes coming up with the ideas for the build.  The reason he took this class was because engineering interests him. 

Tyler Lovell

I am currently 16 years old being born on August 12 1997. I have lived in Mason my whole life. My hobbies are playing sports, video games and reading. I have a decent amount in robotics especially since I took the class last year. I enjoyed the class so much I decided to take the class again. I am more of a builder and do the wiring than actually coming up with the ideas.