As part of the hands on learning experience at WPI, many of the Robotics specific courses teach through a combination of theory and doing. In these projects we work together in 2-3 person teams to design, build, and control, a relatively simple robot. This project was done for the class focusing on design analysis and linkages.

In this project we had to:

• Design a robot with restricted components.

• Empirically test our components such as motors to determine their operating specs, such as stall torque, no load RPM, and efficiency.

• Perform stress analysis on our different components to be sure they can withstand the forces of operation.

• Use SolidWorks to simulate and animate our design to show feasibility and ease of assembly.

• Finally, we had to wire, cable manage, and program our robot to play the game set for us.

This robot was designed to position "solar panels" (Aluminum 4"x4" plates) at three different positions at different angles. We used the fact that you can design a four bar for any three orientations that will hit all three, to satisfy this challenge.

Cycloidal Drive:

I am currently working on a cycloidal drive mechanism, specifically learning how to design it with the proper tolerances for 3D Printing. I have no good picture at the moment but i'd be happy to talk more in depth about it and show off some of my designs.