ASE Robot Project
(Ours will be superior)
About
Our capstone project idea is a multi-use CNC machine built from scratch which will be able to engrave, drill, and cut a wide variety of materials, especially wood and metal. -> An omindiretictional robot that uses a holonomic drive system that also uses tranmission gear systems while providing maximum strength and stability.
Our Team
William Wu
William Wu is currently a rising senior at Stratford High School (2022). He plans to pursue a STEM related career, mostly likely related to computer science. He started coding at a very young age but didn’t take it seriously until he started to program for his robotic competitions in VEX IQ. He has experience in competitive robotics for roughly three years in middle school and started doing competitive coding since sophomore year such as participating in UIL as a junior where Stratford placed third place and doing USACO competitions. He is participating in CS club, BPA, NHS next year, and Focus Points. His skill set includes being able to code in Python, C++, and Java, having experience in all of Stratford’s engineering classes, problem solving and adaptability through his experiences in competitions, general understanding of robotics, and hands-on tasks due to mechanical work at home through robotics. Outside of his career and academic interests, William is heavily interested in marine biology, history, art, and philosophy. He spends the majority of his free time on drawing, and reading.
Ivan Chan
Ivan Chan is a rising senior in Stratford Highschool (2022). He loves science and math, and is planning to major in Mechanical Engineering. He knows how to program in python and has taken all of the engineering courses offered at Stratford Highschool. He has also participated in many extracurricular STEM activities like Nasa Highschool aerospace scholars and Houston Prep at UHD. Ivan participates in Mu Alpha Theta, CS club, NHS, Focal Points Club, the Stratford Orchestra, and Academy of Science and Engineering. Outside of his career and academic interests, Ivan is interested in bouldering, stand-up comedy , and tutoring kids Algebra. For fun, He likes to hang out with his friends, play video games, and write jokes.
Caleb Xu
Caleb is a rising senior in Stratford High School (2022). In addition to having taken all computer science and engineering courses offered at Stratford. Outside of school, Caleb programs competitively in the US Computing Olympiad as well as for fun. He knows Java, Python, and JavaScript. He was a lab leader at LetsCodeSpringBranch, a student-led free summer coding camp which taught over 50 middle and elementary schoolers how to program using python. In the district regional UIL competition, he placed 4th out of 30 competitors, with his team placing 3rd. Caleb has honed rapid problem solving skills and knowledge of programming and engineering. He is a very hands-on person and thrives in settings where he can apply himself. Caleb plays on Stratford’s varsity lacrosse team and has been playing since freshman year. He is also a 2x state qualifier for the BPA Java Programming competition, and is founder and president of the Focal Points club. In his spare time, he enjoys programming, shooting lacrosse balls into his neighbors’ yards, and writing.
Updates
List of Updates for our ASE Capstone Project
May 9, 2022
Minimal viable website created.
May 16, 2022
Project rough draft completed.
| Task | Progress | Details | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grant Proposal | 100% | N/A | Grant Proposal |
| Letter of Intent | 100% | N/A | Letter of Intent |
| Need/Solution | 100% | N/A | Need/Solution |
| Overview | 100% | N/A | Overview |
| Summary | 100% | N/A | Summary |
| Goal | 100% | N/A | Goal |
| Budget | 100% | N/A | Budget |
| Method | 100% | N/A | Method |
| Evaluation | 100% | N/A | Evaluation |
| Bios & Headshots | 100% | <ul><li>[x] William</li><li>[x] Ivan</li><li>[x] Caleb</li></ul> | <ul><li>William</li><li>Ivan</li><li>Caleb</li></ul> |
Aug 1, 2022
Team meeting held. Initial project idea determined to be unfeasible given lack of sufficient funds.
Aug 12, 2022
Team meeting held. New project ideas proposed and are listed. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vLqeaCHEdFjoJAP2mTRqzuUlQ8qIXp6wMO58diqAo6A/edit?usp=sharing
Aug 20, 2022
New main project idea about a robot made of VEX EDR parts for economical convenience. No key details down yet. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zyP9JSa1w9Mg4sK5RWv0v7XD-uabAFtUYA9GuWV6zr0/edit?usp=sharing
Aug 24, 2022
Discussed with Mr. Barrett over new project idea to set up meeting about it next week. Updated and refined project ideas and main idea.
Aug 31, 2022
Held group meeting after school after talking with Mr. Barrett. Updated project proposal documents and scheduled weekend meeting to plan our design.
Sep 4, 2022
Held in-person meeting at William’s house. Disassembled VEX robot from previous year. Picture attached below.
Sep 10, 2022
Researched heavily on existing designs of tranmissions and how they operate. Started creating basic general ideas of how the robot and tranmission system will work. Drew out baisc blueprints of the systems and robots which are attached as photos below.
(We decided to make the tranmission only two speed due to size contraints.)
Sep 16, 2022
Started creating and assembling the tranmission and wheel system that was deigned previously. Also we started clalculating amount of parts necessary for the project. We currently require 4 big gears, 1 medium ~36 tooth gear, 3 small 12 tooth gears, along with two servo motors.
Some issues we ran into were lacking parts to connect the base pieces at 45 degrees which we decide to possibly make makeshift ones in the future.
After many iterations we finally managed to get a rough and basic design of the tranmission and plan on incopratting the servo to be able to shift gears next meeting. Pictures are attached below:
Sep 23, 2022
Had a group meeting at William’s house and started constructing more transmissions. (Created the basic form of 3/4 needed transmission systems so we made 2 more this meeting and don’t have enough supplies to start on the last one) We ran into issues over the gear shifting servo mechanism as the plate that is supposed to shift the gear system twists and turns instead of actually moving the axle. It may need adjusting and redesigning. Our need list is also expanding as we also need more 2” standoffs and the 45 degree angle parts. Pictures are attached below of the process and products created this meeting:
Sep 30, 2022
Continued assembling the transmission systems and tested and attempted different ways of making the motor subsystem that moves the shaft to shift the transmission between gear ratios. We have one working one by heavily modifying the design and structure but still need to test it using code and actual motor driven movement which we will try next meeting. There were issues with our original design of this subsystem and need more parts to make it work which we will need to pick up this week. There is bit of concern about the clearance of the gears when they shift, but decided to make changes only when it becomes an issue. Pictures of results are below along with a link to a video demonstrating the working transmission prototype we created. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aFD7IzYjvhQks1yMLB_fpNdc9nvhxdHX/view?usp=drivesdk
Oct 5, 2022
Scheduled meeting with Mr. Barret on Oct 6 before school at 7:30 am.
Oct 6, 2022
Ivan showed the 4 transmission gears to Mr. Barret before school. Group members met in ASE room to obtain necessary missing parts to modify remaining 3/4 transmission gears which had a defect.
Oct 8, 2022
Party at William’s house:
- Replaced transmission support frames with sturdier pieces
- Constructed remaning transmission gears
- Completed vehicle base, used aluminum plates to connect all 4 transmissions
Caption: William is working hard.
October 15, 2022
There wasn’t a meeting or build day this week due to scheduling issues, but we did grab more parts necessary for building the base and actual structure of the robot. We also made a new design for the main frame and plates allowing for a flat metal surface on top for storage as well as a latch system to open said plates to access cortex which will be in the middle. A basic sketch is attached below.
October 21, 2022
Party at William’s house x2:
- Completed base structure of robot, added cortex to frame
- Setup VEX extensions on VSCode: programming begins
- Began programming holonomic driver system
- Repaired support plate to be functional on 4th transmission gear
Caption: Uwulliam Uwu
Caption: Begin coding
October 18, 2022
No meeting this week There wasn’t a meeting this week (College application deadline) but we did start planning and getting the parts necessary for the rest of the build. We took around 40 standoffs for the planned flap structure but edited the design a bit. A new design based on limits we faced last time is attached below.
November 4, 2022
Honorable Mention: [x] EA Dealines are over (screw college admissions)
- Added more structures to robot
- Code: in progress (expect a mid-week update)
Caption: uwu.jpg
![VIDEO]https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/79298723/200131020-e837bbde-6ffa-44fa-b7eb-f23fcc471d4f.mp4 Caption: uwu.mp4
November 11, 2022
Structure is now strong enough to support William’s weight (140 lbs)!!!
November 18,2022
Continued to build, increased supports and have a basic plan for code. https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1–cxpFt60EFcjEuOXlHt3bphe01Vysf_ Photo file type isn’t supported so here is a google drive link: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1dCK0ONlI4BPg48RhqORVrhOlKCtlX-MY
November 29, 2022
Had a small meeting where we put touch ups on supports ect. Finished basic stucture of robot, just need to program and make more touch ups. (There will be lack of meetings due to midterms coming up.)
December 16, 2022
Had small meeting where we tried to start testing the motor subsystems using code but ran into issues with the code and contoller (AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH). Confirmed that the movement motor works but couldn’t test the transmission part. We will be taking a break from meetings due to winter break and college applications (YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY).
William on a chair on a spinning robot: https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/72991139/208216094-90c347a1-4e29-4dc9-83f2-5d7c1548624a.MOV https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/72991139/208216097-ddfd572a-68d8-44e3-9879-2acffc54ef78.MOV
January 6, 2023
Fixed the parts of the tranmission that were missing parts and fixed broken areas of the drive system. There were a few loose screws directly in sections that have been surrounded in support structures. We also used a ton of WD-40 for the gear areas to hopefully make everything move smoother.
January 15, 2023
Lots of pain. Debugging and testing the tranmissions reveal a lot more underlying issues that need to be dealt with. Lots of loose screws and bolts in very hard to reach areas, slipping collars on the front left tranmission system causes bar slippage (aka no transmission movement), mismatched spacers causing too much friction in the front left system, only two servos currently activate with test code, and lack of enough servo movement (doesn’t move enough) is causing no gear switches. (BTW the cortex is super hard to access due to all of the support bars resting on it = programming and turning it off and on is hindering my ability to achieve happiness in life)
The good news is that the actual drive motors except front left is working well. Attached below is a video of tesing. PAIN https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lTuBX–0RHedQVnAmOAROXNOLArXs_j5/view?usp=share_link
Here is the (I swear it’s supposed to work) code: BigChungusV1.2.txt
January 16, 2023
William’s birthday + fixed the stuck wheel issue (yes we worked on the robot on his birthday - look at that commitment).
January 20, 2023
GUESS WHO’S BACK? It your long time friend deleted unsaved work (coding + this entry) and more maintainance…… We fixed up the loose screws and nuts and also had to take apart and fix one of the tranmission gear boxes due to issues with the servo not functioning. After fixing all of these issues and adding another piece that held the gear pad in place as it slides, all of the tranmissions now can shift between gear speed relatively smoothly. (IE hopefully not snapping a gear and having to pause before turning the wheel motor back on during the gear shift.) YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY. Not much coding work got done since the servos kept on overheating = no testing the code = no code :(
Here are some photos and videos of our progress. dem videos https://drive.google.com/file/d/1m9mAIKSfQWng8ATmvefWh1FSTDoxuOmn/view?usp=share_link https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mMeQ7mbdhAGJHfl7Rs5Cw_bqV4v9zJLm/view?usp=share_link
dem photos
January 27, 2023
Battery and servo/motor issues contnue plaguing our progress. We got a few videos recorded of our current progress though. Coding is continuing but there are future issues with a lack of a gyroscope that could impact our code.
Video is linked below: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mkJZ9eTF9WtVZ5PNOZfUMDlv9QEYYY1Y/view?usp=share_link
January 31, 2023
William did a check up on the robot just in case some of the motor issue were realted to battery. Testing suggets that a bearing is causing issues with a gear causing friction in torque mode. For high speed mode, the small gear used in torque mode is getting caught with another gear causing friction and jittering in movement. May need to swap ou many parts of the transmission.
Video of check up is below: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nnunm5tlDpyX16NJcjTJB5wTWXgjmsoY/view?usp=share_link
February 3/4, 2023
(William sniffed too much super glue.) We deicded to fix the issues of the transmission by first shifting the small gear further away to make shifting more smooth, removing a flat bearing on the transmission shaft to allow for more flexibility, and super gluing the big gears together so they can’t seperate and crack apart like before. We did extensive testing and the changes seem to have made the robot functionality much more smooth and reliable.
Da picture:
Videos: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oorgld-ZfU0u4FqeG5AJzNeKMbk8GebH/view?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oabfH6N8-Bbl6OR4sKcfxDKIun0P7bmN/view?usp=share_link https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oZlo74G65seC-8AfjrwgRpzNrV1lcsLs/view?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oXPaQUUubZtmdncnLZOT86b62AihgaA-/view?usp=share_link
February 10, 2023
For some reason we are still having issues with our tranmission so we tried fixing them but it didn’t help that much. The servos keep on overheating and we think it is either a frictional issue or the motor is being overloaded by the cortex.
February 17, 2023
We went in using a slighlty larger gear instead one the transmission servo to see if that would help since it looks like it had enough torque to work. However this cause the motor to stall and overload since there wasn’t enough torque. We have switched back to our old design and are seeing if we can decrease friction in anyway.
Feburary 24, 2023
We decided to switch parts of our design. For one of our tranmission units, it has a super long sharft that seems to keep everything and the psinning stable. We decided to match that in every other transmission unit. After testing, it has made shaking minimal and everything seems to work correctly.
Videos: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qKXLErxmyB_yTNwbZuHNxBStn5mZILBA/view?usp=sharing
March 3, 2023
We just took care of maintaence work and used lots of WD-40 in order to make sure everything transitions smoothly.
March 10, 2023
THe robot seems to be complete in terms of the physical asepcts. We double check everything and did light maintence work. We also measure the weight which came out to about 40 pounds!
March 15, 2023
Completed around 90% of the math necessary for programming the holonomic drive (without gyro sensor). Code should be relatively easy to implement.
March 24, 2023
We couldn’t have a meeting due to schedule conflicts we we have started working with Philmore (he is good at video editing) to start on the video. We have a meeting schedule to discuss video plannig next week. Caleb is still working on code (he needs to use threads and modify the existing test code)
March 31, 2023
Caleb was trying to program in visual studio but had to change to RobotC based on information from other vex teams. We started the planning stage on the video and plan to start recording and start editing process next week.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Mnr4quJeZwpByXvROTFiUWjBBHlflEG-et-HLR2p-Hg/edit?usp=sharing