Intro
As the 10th-grade year introduced mechatronics, we began a robotic arm project. In this project, we were tasked with the assembly and coding of a robotic arm. Although only in my tenth-grade year, this project was one of the hardest I have faced. However, it successfully introduced me to the engineering and technology behind mechatronics. The challenges didn't stem from coding the robot rather the assembly, specifically working with low-quality wood. Because the parts were all laser cut, getting them to connect with screws was a considerable inconvenience, as the stripping of the wood was prone. Because of this, this project taught me perseverance. The overall assembly of the robot took around two weeks. After the assembly was complete, coding was required. We attempted to code the robot to pick up a ping-pong ball. However, we could not achieve the coding needed to accomplish this task in a sufficient amount of time. This specific intro project taught us the basics of coding and assembly and, however, also perseverance when it came to troubleshooting coding and assembling.
Assembly
The first step in this process was to assemble the robot. With over 50 detailed steps, with took quite some time. Moreover, this was where I encountered my first problem–softwood laser cut pieces. Because the parts were all laser cut, getting them to connect with screws was a considerable inconvenience, as the stripping of the wood was prone. Due to this, keeping our robot tightly assembled was an issue as screws would not securely tighten into holes. Regardless of these challenges, I was able to assemble the robot as securely as possible.
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Wiring and Programming
After the assembly was complete, wiring and coding were required with Arduino's online microcontroller software. With this software, although we were able to successfully generate code for the robot's motion because we could not securely assemble our robot due to stripped parts, the robot could not complete its goal of picking up a ping-pong ball. While this robot did go incomplete, it introduced us to controlling robots with servos, programming these servos, and the importance of high-quality material.
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