Phoenix

The second part of the MAE 3 class was robot design project which the first part was pendulum clock project. In this part, Teams of students designed and built a machine for a class competition using DC motor, solenoids, and fabrication tools. Since it was close to Soccer World Cup 2014, the topic of the robot contest was Robot Soccer World Cup. This was the first time I worked in a team project.

The contest description was that the year was 2053 and robots had become ubiquitous everyday life. Robots had even replaced humans in sports. Teams would face off in a robotic soccer match to determine the best robot and best team of engineers. Basically, there would be a contest table which white balls and yellow balls were placed on a shelf in the middle of the table. Two robots would be on each side of the table and compete in a head-to-head competition. The team which scored more would be the winner of the game. If one white ball was on the field at the end of the game, the team would score one point. If one white ball was in the field at the end of the game, the team would score four points. The points would be doubled for yellow balls which were placed in the upper shelf. Every team was given some standard material and components such as pieces of acrylic, high speed motors, high torque motors, solenoids, rubber bands, and sheet metal and steel rods. Every team was formed by three to four students in the same section.

The name of our robot was Phoenix because our first robot was scrapped and we built Phoenix from stretch in 3 days. Before the final contest, Phoenix defeated all the robots in my section and became the top robot which was a miracle. This was the reason why we picked this name because it was just like phoenix that obtains new life by arising from the ashes. Phoenix consisted of three main features which were foldable arms, high speed drum, and extendable shelves. The foldable arms were formed by linking 7 bars to create the extension and elevation to reach the balls on the shelf. The foldable arms were driven by a high torque motor with high gear ratio gear combination and assisted by two thick rubber bands at the starting of the extension. On the other hand, the extendable shelves were formed by two pieces of sheet metal with gear track on the side. The shelves were also driven by a high-torque motor with rack and pinion to extend two shelves in opposite directions in order to create a path for the balls to the goal. Last but not least, the high speed drum was our main weapon and was placed at the end of the arms to grip the balls. The drum was powered by a high speed motor and create quick motion for scoring. It also had large wheels for the white balls and a solid drum with plastic O-rings glued on it for the yellow balls. In the final tournament, my team was the first runner-up and the high speed drum got the High Quality Design Feature Award.

In the beginning of this project, I worried so much about not able to contribute and being confused with others’ ideas since my English was still poor at that time. When we started brainstorming ideas, I did not really think of any idea for the robot but my other teammate did. I felt helpless for not contributing to the team. However, I started getting into the project and ideas started going around in my head. When everything was going well, bad things happens. One of the team members dropped the class and left her part incomplete right before the testing of the robot. Of course, it was a failure at the testing and we found out that our design was not working at all in real life. After this frustration, we decided to pack all up and start all over again. Every team member including me worked the hardest in a 3 days period to have the new robot, Phoenix, done. During those 3 days, since we had the same direction and motivation, we had smooth discussion and collaboration to have the new idea of the robot and good division of work. Then miracle happened. Our team had the new robot, Phoenix, working in 3 days and preforming way better than the former one. Finally, we defeated all the teams in our section and got the second place in the class contest. Additional, my design of the high-speed drum also got the Design award. This was my first award in my college life and this made me having so much confident in design. In this project, I realized how powerful of team power and will power is and I felt more comfortable to work in a team. This project actually brought me closer to the real working situation of an engineer in real world.