Meet Kobe. Kobe is the autonomous robot that I helped create during my senior year in UCLA Mechanical Engineering.
The link to watch the video of our robot demonstration is provided here!
You can learn more about the design process here!
Summary
My senior year at UCLA, I worked on a team with 4 other Mechanical Engineering students to design and develop a robot based on the specifications given to our class. In Professor Chang's class, MAE162D/E, we were tasked with designing a robot that was able to interact with wooden cubes on a large venue without the use of user input or wheels. The choice of how to interact with the cubes and how to navigate the venue was left open-ended. This project provided lots of valuable experience in working with a team of engineering peers to solve a prompt with limited parameters. Designing and implementing this robot was a test in self-learning and endurance.
This was my team, Group 7. From left to right: Sehej Sandhu (Systems), me (Design), Jared Anklam (Team Lead), Alex Lima (Mechatronics), Parminder Singh (Manufacturing).
This team was assigned by the professor to provide a balanced skill set for each group.
This endeavor was a two quarter project, spanning from January 2020 to June 2020. We were tasked with finishing a completed design by the end of Winter 2020 and to construct the robot for a demonstration by the end of Spring 2020. We completed the necessary design related tasks by December and were ready to order parts for construction but COVID-19 prevented the team from meeting in person, meaning we would not be able to physically construct the robot. To fulfill our goal, we instead translated the design to a simulation, completely transitioning to Matlab Simulink. Using Matlab, we were able to create a state chart to control the robot and provide a venue for the robot to move around and interact with, which acted as a substitute for a physical robot. The simulation successfully demonstrated what the robot would have done if we were able to construct it. However, transferring the design to a simulation did not come without its own challenges, including difficulty modeling geometric contacts and troubleshooting mechanical systems. Overall, we accomplished what we set out to do, completing a design for a functioning robot despite the limitations placed upon us.
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