Week of 4/20
This week we presented at design expo. The judges seemed to enjoy the three projects that were there since the average rating was a 5.77 out of 7. I am pleased with how the project turned out and we will be presenting to Shane in the upcoming week.
Week of 4/13
This week we prepared everything for design expo. We got the project to be fully functional with a program that moves 2 blocks around and we believe that it is ready to be judged. Next week we will very quickly touch up a few things before we present but we believe that currently we have a rough enough product that it will suffice to be presented as if design expo was tomorrow.
Week of 4/6
This week we were unable to communicate between the pi and anything. As a group we have split up a little bit in order to complete multiple different parts. Ben took the pi in order to try and communicate between the pi and his computer. I took Maddies computer and am going to proceed to interface between the computer programs. This will allow for me to create a screen while Ben works on the road block of the pi communication.
Week of 3/30
This week we managed to interface with the virtual robot to the pc that it is running on. We were able to send a command via python over to robotstudio and move the robot. This is a big step in the right direction. Next week we will work on connecting the raspberry pi up to the robot and controlling it that way.
Week of 3/23
This week we resorted to using Maddie’s computer for the free license. It is appearing like we will not have the site license meaning we will just be working on a single computer the whole time. We managed to create a station and control it though!
Week of 3/16
This week we spent all of our time trying to get robot studio working on Ben’s computer. We were unable to create a station in order to simulate a robot. We also are almost done with the free trial on Ben’s computer and thus hope we get the site license set up ASAP. If we do not we are going to run into trouble really quickly.
Week of 3/9
This week my group decided we needed to figure out a temporary alternative to the site license while it is being worked on. We decided we were going to use a 30 day trial license on Ben’s computer in hopes that within those 30 days we will have the site license to be used. This project has been a lot of waiting and not a lot of doing unfortunately.
Week of 2/10 and 2/17
This week we looked further into the issue with robot axis 1. We have been waiting for a long time for PC interface and on Friday 2/16 we believe we found a free alternative. Our alternative is to use robot studio to simulate a robot in order to test and use our HMI. This project would have been easier to have 480 Volt power because we could’ve gotten a robot that had PC interface already.
Week of 2/3
This week we were able to look into the encoder. We do still need to figure out what’s wrong. We ran out of time with Shane so we will need to schedule another meeting with him in order to resolve our issues. It was not an issue with the wiring or the encoder being dirty. These both were changed and the same problem was reproduced. This week I hope we hear back from ABB about the software for the controller so we can make progress on the HMI.
Week of 1/27
The following image is a representation of the potential final result of the project.
To Do List:
- Meet with Shane to diagnose the encoder.
- Familiarize Shane with the robot
- Use a device to check whether the encoder is receiving the correct signals.
I am very concerned about the encoder since I do not know enough about encoders and oscilloscopes. This is why we are involving Shane. We are hoping that his knowledge of these devices will be sufficient to assist us in diagnosing the problem.
START OF SPRING SEMESTER
Week Of 9/17
This week we accomplished the following tasks:
- Powering a potential robot
- Setting up weekly meetings for the design team
- Begun programming the raspberry pi with a potential custom interface
To-do
- Further discuss the robot type and location
- Order the touchscreen
- Meet with sponsor about updates
Week of 10/1
This week we accomplished the following tasks:
- Organized the Logistics of obtaining a robot
- Met with the sponsor who enjoyed what we have done
- Designed the custom interface a little bit more
- Investigated the IO of the Raspberry Pi
To-do:
- Power Robot to make sure it works
- Begin trying to communicate with the robot
- Begin and complete CDR slides/Present the slides
Week of 10/27
This week we accomplished the following tasks:
- Research on how to talk with the robot via internet
To-do:
- Attempt to talk with the robot via computer
- Talk using the raspberry pi
- Interpret signals
Week of 10/30
This week we accomplished the following tasks:
- Communicated with the robot
- Need another Ethernet cable