ME 250 F10 Reflection

Yusuf Yanikoglu

ME 250 Fall 2010

MASSIVE DYNAMIC TEAM REFLECTION

We began the year using design techniques that I thought were unnecessary like the FRDPRRC tables to refine the strategies, concepts, modules, and components of our robot. However as the semester progressed, these techniques allowed us to consider many more methods of attacking the problem of scoring balls in the arena. Our design process continued throughout the semester, as we changed our course of action many times. The end result was very different from what we envisioned from the beginning of the class, and I believe this is a good example of real life engineering.

Since this is unlike any class I have taken so far at any level, I learned an immense amount about manufacturing and machining as well as the design process. This started with SolidWorks, where we got a strong grasp of visual bases necessary to build an effective machine. As I have taken CAD classes in the past, this was by far and away the most advanced and useful, directly leading to our machining process. These connections between creating strategies, creating a CAD model, and making the components by hand in a shop are what I believe are the strengths of this course.

It is difficult to get in touch with other students sometimes in a school of this size, so getting into groups to work on something like this was a great way to meet people and use team work in engineering. Our group did a great job of balancing each other’s ideas and opinions evenly with minimal disagreement. Although we had differences throughout the semester, it showed the interest that we all had and the number of paths we considered along the way. Working with others well is a very important aspect of engineering and the structure of this class was a good opportunity for us to learn to adapt to other viewpoints and work on our team working skills.

If I would take the class again, I would have tried to structure my time better throughout the semester, and maybe start building the robot earlier. We were very pressed for time towards the end of the semester, especially when unforeseen problems arose, such as cancelled shop times. We also chose a very complicated strategy for scoring and ended up failing to do just that. If I could go back, I think we might have used a simpler strategy, such as scoring on the top using a robot with wheels. The lever arm turned out to be very difficult to jam, and our hammer did not work as effectively as we anticipated. Considering that less that half of the robots in competition scored, we would have been very successful by making our machine simple.

If I could change anything in the course, I would adjust the arena to make the lever arm easier to jam, or anything that would make a robot that attacks the slot stronger. I just felt that we had a general lack of knowledge of how the arena would work, and the adjustments to the starting positions and rule changes during the semester did not help.