2007 TE Session Outline

This is the outline for both the 2007 basic and advanced Technology Enrichment sessions.

Basic Sessions

These sessions are geared to new students and new teams.

Introduction

Date: 09/18/2007

1. Welcome to 2007 TE Sessions and to Tech
   1. Info about RoboJackets
   2. Key people and contacts during the sessions
   3. Info about sponsors
   4. Info about this year vs. last year
   5. Show them where to get power points and materials on our site
      1. On our website in TE sessions (there will be a page for materials and such)
2. What is a robot
   1. Types
3. Robots in real life
   1. Applications
      1. Commercial / Industrial
         1. Roomba
         2. Kuka
      2. Government / Military
         1. Samsungs Sentry in the DMZ
         2. UAV's border patrol, communication, traffic reports
         3. Bomb defusing
         4. Rescue
      3. Research
         1. DARPA
         2. NASA
         3. Telescopes
      4. Robotics at tech
         1. Borg Lab
         2. RIM
         3. GTRI
         4. UAV Lab
         5. others
      5. Our robots
         1. Candi
         2. 1 or 2 RoboCup
4. Vex Competition
   1. Announcement of competition
   2. Building toward our in-house competition
   3. End of TE Session Competition
   4. FIRST Vex Competition
5. End with our goals and aspirations
   1. Take questions

Intro to Mechanical Engineering

Date: 09/25/2007

1. Force Balances
   1. MATERIALS NEEDED:
      1. Arrow shaped force applicators
      2. pop can and weights
      3. spring steel strips and fixtures
      4. thin aluminum strips
      5. plastic strips
      6. poorly built box
      7. strong box
      8. Working Model demos
   2. Basics
      1. Gravity (2 slides)
      2. equations F=sum(ma¬¬i) 2 slides
      3. examples
         1. pictures of point masses
         2. pictures of airplane
         3. crush a pop can
      4. Stresses
         1. Bending (4 slides)
            1. one point
            2. multiple point
         2. Material basics (2 slides)
            1. steel vs. aluminum
            2. plastics and other
         3. Examples
            1. spring steel mounted in different ways
            2. aluminum fatigue
            3. plastic bending
      5. Building a decent box
         1. Working Model™ demos of bad designs
         2. Shear loads (3 slides)
            1. square with side loads on top
            2. corner loads
            3. triangles help!
         3. Fastening (2 slides)
      6. Activity
         1. Build a box with VEX kit material
         2. focus on strength and weight
         3. Box should be strong enough to put entire VEX kit on top and resist side loading
2. Rotation
   1. MATERIALS NEEDED
      1. Wheels
      2. Shafts
      3. Bearing setup
      4. Bushing setup
      5. Shaft collars
      6. VEX demo
   2. Bearings vs. Bushings
      1. Wheel setups (4 slides)
         1. Overhanging loads
         2. Centered loads
         3. Should wheels spin on shaft?
         4. Should shaft spin in housing?
      2. Types of bearings (2 slides)
         1. Radial
         2. Thrust
      3. Forces bearings can resist (2 slides)
         1. Speed
         2. Loading
      4. Bushing Applications (3 slides)
         1. Slow moving rotations
         2. Radial and thrust
         3. Materials
      5. Shaft Restraint (3 slides)
         1. Set screws
         2. Shaft Collars
         3. Nuts
         4. VEX kit examples
   3. Making square shafts spin in round holes (2 slides)
      1. Intro to VEX parts
      2. Physical examples
   4. Activity
      1. Put wheels on your box to transport a load
      2. See if your box can support load while accelerating/decelerating to demonstrate dynamic loading.
      3. Put wheels on sides too, to test overall robustness of design

Mechanical Power Transmission

Date: 10/02/2007

1. What is power
   1. Physics
      1. Work x time = force x velocity
   2. Idea
      1. Make your motors useful
2. Mechanisms
   1. Gears
      1. How they work
         1. Teeth
         2. Pitch diameter
   2. Ratio
      1. What it means
      2. How to calculate
         1. Teeth to teeth
   3. Belts
      1. Types
         1. V Belt
         2. Timing Belt
      2. How they work
         1. V Belt - Fits in a wheel that has groove
         2. Timing belt - Have notches
         3. Goal when using keep as much contact as possible between belt and wheel (sort of)
      3. How to calculate
         1. Diameter to diameter
   4. Chains and Sprockets
      1. How they work
         1. Links
         2. Master links
         3. Numbering (what it means)
         4. Standard sizes (lengths etc)
         5. Goal when using ...
      2. Big v. Small
         1. Big
            1. Stronger
            2. Less efficient
         2. Small
            1. Weaker
            2. More efficient
      3. How to calculate
         1. Diameter to diameter
   5. Pulleys
      1. How they work
   6. Special
      1. Rack and Pinion
         1. How they work
      2. Worm Gears
         1. How they work
3. Advantages and Disadvantages of each
   1. Gears
      1. Weight
         1. You will be reducing them
      2. Location
         1. Motor is close to output
      3. Easier to work with
         1. Don't have to tension
   2. Belts
      1. Tensioning
      2. Location
         1. Motor can be much farther away from output
      3. Weight
         1. Don't need to remove mass
      4. Skipping
   3. Chains
      1. Tensioning
      2. Location
         1. Motor can be much farther away from output
      3. Slack
         1. Less efficient than gears
      4. Weight
         1. Don’t need to remove mass
   4. Special
      1. Rack and Pinion
         1. Linear motion
      2. Worm Gears
         1. High torque
            1. Cant back drive (in theory but teeth can break...)
4. Demos
   1. Gears
      1. C4's Gearbox and Lego Demo
   2. Belts
      1. C4’s Panning Turret (ghetto)
   3. Chains
      1. C4's drive module
   4. Pulleys
      1. ?
   5. Special
      1. Rack and Pinion
         1. Lego
      2. Worm
         1. Lego
5. Activities
   1. Build a gear box with a ratio of X (lego)
   2. Allow groups to come up and see C4’s various aspects.
   3. ??
6. What to expect
   1. A combination of these on your bot (not just one)
   2. Be prepared to chop of some weight

Drive Types

Date: 10/09/2007

1. Methods of motion
   1. Tank
   2. Swerve / Ackerman
   3. Swerve / Crab
   4. Omni
   5. Mecanum
2. Advantages and Disadvantages of each
   1. Tank
      1. Advantages
         1. mechanically simple
         2. saves space
         3. zero turning radius
         4. high traction
      2. Disadvantages
         1. more turning effort/traction tradeoff
         2. single axis of motion
   2. Swerve / Ackerman
      1. Advantages
         1. mechanically simple
         2. low turning effort
         3. high traction
      2. Disadvantages
         1. large turning radius
         2. difficult to power all wheels
   3. Swerve / Crab
      1. Advantages
         1. Multi-axis motion
         2. zero turning radius
         3. high traction
         4. low turning effort
      2. Disadvantages
         1. complex control
         2. mechanically complex
   4. Omni drive
      1. Advantages
         1. mechanically simple
         2. zero turning radius
         3. multi-axis motion
      2. Disadvantages
         1. low traction
         2. complex controls
         3. expensive parts
   5. Mecanum
      1. Advantages
         1. mechanically simple (uses tank setup)
         2. zero turning radius
         3. multi-axis motion
         4. higher traction than omni drive
      2. Disadvantages
         1. complex controls
         2. expensive parts
3. Demos (during presentation)
   1. RC Cars
   2. Robocup bases / video
   3. Mecanum forklift video
4. Activities
   1. Drive demo vehicles through maze (time trials)

Manipulation

Date: 10/16/2007

1. Arms
   1. Linkage Types
      1. single bar
      2. parallel bar
      3. telescoping
   2. Joint Types
      1. Rotary
      2. Prismatic
   3. Reach
      1. single joint range of motion (angular and linear)
      2. workspace (several joints)
         1. dexterous workspace
         2. maximum reachable workspace
   4. Stability
      1. Center of gravity
      2. static balance
      3. dynamic balance
2. Conveyors
   1. Belts / rollers
      1. single / double belt systems
      2. enclosed conveyor system
3. Demos
   1. Hand crank powered conveyors
   2. Unpowered linkages and joints
4. Activities

Manufacturing and Safety

Date: 10/23/2007

1. Design Tools
   1. Brainstorming
      1. Strategy
         1. Idea cloud
         2. Function tree
            1. Organizes possible robot functions during competition
      2. Robot designs
         1. Morphological chart
   2. Evaluation
      1. Objective weighting based on strategy
      2. Evaluation table
         1. considers importance of robot characteristics based on selected strategy
   3. Machinability (6 slides)
      1. Design parts that can be made
      2. Design parts to fit available materials
      3. Show design of one part
      4. Show manufacturable design of same part
   4. Drafting (5 slides)
      1. Importance of drawing accurately and well
      2. Drafting basics (dimensions and linetypes)
      3. CAD, why its good
      4. Proper dimensioning
      5. Demo of poorly drafted part
   5. Weight (3 slides)
      1. Weight removal
      2. Material selection
      3. Shape and weight considerations
      4. Building Successful Machines
   6. Technical Drawing
      1. Last step before fabrication
      2. Can use anything from simensioned sketchees to 3D models
      3. Important to shot not only individual part dimensions but also how it fits into the overall design

Safety and Fabrication

1. MATERIALS NEEDED:
   1. Old pair of safety glasses
   2. Ear protection
   3. Gloves
   4. Machined parts that demonstrate topics
2. Safety
   1. Glasses (4 slides)
      1. Reasons to wear
      2. Times to wear
      3. Glasses vs. face shields
      4. Welding
      5. Demo (Pair of damaged glasses)
   2. Clothing and hair (3 slides)
      1. Shoes and shirts
      2. Pull hair back
      3. Gloves and types
   3. Ear protection (2 slides)
      1. Types
      2. Hazards
      3. Pass around different types
   4. Chemicals (3 slides)
      1. Paint and solvents
      2. Dust masks
      3. Gloves and skin protection
   5. Machinery dangers (4 slides)
      1. Don’t touch drill bits and moving parts
      2. Pinch points
      3. Parts may be hot
      4. Fixturing parts properly
   6. First Aid (3 slides)
      1. When to call for help & first aid kits
      2. Bleeding & Shock
      3. Broken bones & Falls
3. Fabrication
   1. Drilling (6 slides) +video
      1. Use lubricants
      2. Proper speed for material
      3. Battery drills vs drill press
      4. Drill holes oversized for bolts
      5. Material thickness and chip removal
      6. Safety
   2. Cutting (7 slides) +videos
      1. Powered vs. manual
      2. Workpiece Material
      3. Bandsaws
      4. Rotary saws
      5. Hacksaws
      6. Milling
      7. Safety
   3. Grinding (7 slides) +video
      1. Reasons to grind
      2. Grinders
      3. Material removal is slow
      4. Heat buildup
      5. Grinding disc types
      6. Aluminum and steel
      7. Safety
   4. Milling and Turning (7 slides) + video
      1. Reasons to use mill or lathe
      2. CNC machining
      3. Precision
      4. Bits
      5. Show different bits and the cuts they produce
      6. Show lathed parts
      7. Safety
   5. Tapping (5 slides) + video
      1. Reasons to tap
      2. Tap sizes
      3. Material
      4. Tapping procedures
      5. Safety
4. Activity
   1. Thoroughly design a complex device for manufacture.
   2. Draw pieces out by hand
   3. Describe fabrication processes involved

Pneumatic / Fluid Power

Date: 10/30/2007 Mechanical Energy Storage

1. 1. Materials Needed
      1. Springs
      2. Steel balls
      3. Plastic balls
      4. Flywheel setup
      5. Pneumatic demos
2. Energy
   1. Definitions (4 slides)
      1. Energy direction
      2. Kinetic E=1/2mv2 E=1/2Iw2
      3. Potential E=mgh = 1/2kx2 =pdV
      4. Dissipative E=something about friction heat
      5. Blow up and deflate a balloon
   2. Kinetic (3 slides)
      1. Mass vs. speed
      2. Spinning
      3. Falling
      4. Demos
   3. Potential (3 slides)
      1. Springs
      2. Height and gravity
      3. Falling
      4. Demos
   4. Dissipative (3 slides)
      1. Friction is everywhere
      2. Reduce or rely on it
      3. Demos
   5. Bring all 3 energy types together (1 slide)
      1. Example of ball rolling up and down
      2. Demo
3. Activity
   1. Use Vex kit to fling something
   2. Do one with just potential and one with kinetic
   3. Hand out some springs
4. Fluid Power
   1. Dr. Book and Dr. Paredis lecture
   2. Activity
      1. Use Vex kit and pneumatics to fling something
      2. Hand out cylinder and storage tank and sol. valve

Electrical Power and Electrical Energy Storage

Date: 11/06/2007

1. Electromagnetism and Mechanical Force
   1. Maxwell's Equations
   2. Demo: Electromagnet
2. Circuit Elements
   1. Wire
   2. Switch
   3. Resistor
   4. Capacitor
   5. Inductor
3. Electrical energy storage
   1. Batteries – how they work, chemistries, charging recommendations (specific to FIRST batteries).
   2. Capacitors – how they work.
   3. Inductors?
4. Electro-Mechanical Energy Conversion
   1. Motors
      1. Brushed
      2. Brushless
      3. Stepper
   2. Solenoids
   3. Other...
      1. Railguns
5. Demo: crank generator to charge cap, use cap to power solenoid.
   1. Motor control basics
6. Demos: pot, switch, H-Bridge.
7. Schematics - basics
8. Theory basics – Ohm's Law
   1. Heat
   2. Power consumption and battery life – need to get numbers on kit parts power consumption
9. Wiring
   1. Safety
      1. Wire colors
      2. Wire sizes
      3. Fuses, breakers
      4. Insulation/Routing DEMO
10. Fabrication
11. Activities

Programming

Date: 11/13/2007

1. Motivation
   1. Revisit: What is a robot?
      1. Autonomous vs teleoperated.
      2. Is a _____ a robot? How about a washer machine / toaster etc?
      3. Agents and intelligence???
   2. Why program? Why a computer?
   3. What is a computer?
      1. Does what you tell it
      2. Executes instructions in order
2. Instructions
   1. Data, variables
   2. Math
   3. Logic
      1. Logic Activity
   4. Flow control
   5. Instruction following activity
3. DSP – basic sensor conditioning
   1. Averaging
   2. “Common sense” conditioning (outlier rejection) – ex. a speed reading of 500mph is obviously wrong.
4. Flowcharting/State Machines
   1. Formal schemes for defining control.
   2. Syntax (UML or etc), examples. Demo: make a state machine for a common activity.
      1. Garage door opener

Success in FIRST / Cookout

Date: 11/17/2007

1. Project Management
   1. Raising Interest
   2. Raising Funds
      1. corporate sponsorship
      2. generic HS fundraisers
   3. Team organization
      1. Teachers
      2. Parents
      3. Mentors
      4. Students
   4. Building a robot
      1. preseason development
         1. students
         2. ideas
         3. prototypes
      2. Build season schedule
         1. Generic layout (kickoff to ship)
         2. Team specific considerations
            1. Cash flow
               1. what money do you have when
            2. Suppliers and purchase procedures
               1. lead time for purchases due to school procedures
               2. outsourced machining time
            3. Student responsibilities
               1. overlapping responsibilities
2. About kickoff (reminders and Q/A if possible)
3. About scrimmage (reminders and Q/A if possible)
4. About Peachtree (reminders and Q/A if possible)

Advanced Sessions

Technical Design

Date: 10/16/07

1. CAD vs. Solid modeler
   1. Autodesk AutoCAD
   2. Eagle CAD
   3. Autodesk Inventor
   4. UGS Solid Edge
   5. Dassult Systems CATIA
2. Reading technical drawings
   1. Multi views
   2. Isometrics
3. Properly dimensioned vs. bad
4. Basics of Autodesk Inventor
   1. How to make a part
      1. Constraining sketches
      2. Extrusions / Cuts
      3. Holes
      4. Importance of placing holes for bolts
   2. Assembly
      1. Mating / Constraining
      2. Projecting geometry
   3. Output a drawing
      1. 3 view
      2. Placing dimensions
      3. What a machine shop might want from you

See also How to Guide Inventor

Motor Control

Date:10/30/07

1. Selecting Motors
2. Motor Specifications
3. Signals, Systems, and Controls
   1. Outline
   2. Demo [1] -Link Not Working Yet!
   3. Definitions and ppt [2] -Link Not Working Yet!
   4. [3]

Adv. Mechanical Power Transmission

Date: 10/23/07

Topics in Computer Vision

Date: 09/27/2007

1. Introduction
   1. Six Minutes of Terror
   2. Technology Motivation - Why use vision?
2. Technology Description - What is a camera?
   1. Image formation
      1. Lens
      2. Sensor
   2. Image Representation
      1. Data Structure
3. Low Level Vision/DSP Topics
   1. Filtering/Convolution
      1. Mean, Median filtering
      2. Noise Reduction
      3. Skeletonizing
      4. Pruning
      5. Template Matching
   2. Thresholding
4. Middle Level Vision
   1. Feature/Corner Detection
   2. Clustering
5. Higher Level Vision
   1. Stereo/3D Structure from motion
      1. Photosynth
      2. 4D cities
      3. Self Localization And Mapping (SLAM)
   2. Non Photo Realistic Rendering
      1. Pin Man
      2. Rotoscoping - A Scanner Darkley
      3. Painterly Effects - Sketch, Watercolor etc.
      4. Enhancing Legibility - Technical Drawings
   3. Image Based Rendering
      1. Bullet Time - The Matrix
   4. Computational Photography
      1. Computational Light Fields/Illumination
      2. Computational Optics
      3. Computational Processing
      4. Computational Sensors

Topics in Autonomous Control and Programming II

Date: 10/09/07

1. Cool stuff in CS/Vision
2. Robocup vision demos
3. Basic control code manipulation (change default code)

Manipulation

Date: 11/06/07 and 11/13/07 (2 weeks)

Week 1:

Dr. Lipkin’s slides

1. 1. Intro to manipulators
   1. a. Serial
   2. b. Parallel
   3. c. Grippers
   4. d. Wheeled
2. 2. Serial Analysis
   1. a. RRR Manipulator
      1. i. Workspace
      2. ii. Angles
      3. iii. Singularities
      4. iv. Demo unpowered RRR linkages
   2. b. RPR Manipulators
      1. i. Workspace
      2. ii. Angles
      3. iii. Singularities
      4. iv. Demo unpowered RRP, RPR, PRR linkages
3. 3. Activity
   1. a. Design a manipulator to reach something and so something with it

Week 2:

Manipulator fabrication

1. 1. RPR Manipulator
   1. a. Last year’s FIRST robot
   2. b. Actuation types
      1. i. Electric Motors
      2. ii. Pneumatics
      3. iii. Hydraulics
      4. iv. Advantages and Disadvantages
      5. v. Demos
   3. c. Design
      1. i. Base Rotation
         1. 1. Chain drive
            1. a. Benefits
            2. b. Problems
         2. 2. Motor Selection
         3. 3. Position control
      2. ii. First link elevation
         1. 1. Cable drive
            1. a. Benefits
            2. b. Problems
         2. 2. Material
         3. 3. Position control
      3. iii. Extension
         1. 1. Belt drive
            1. a. Benefits
            2. b. Problems
         2. 2. Motor Selection
         3. 3. Position control
         4. 4. Material
      4. iv. Wrist
         1. 1. Gear drive
            1. a. Benefits
            2. b. Problems
         2. 2. Position control
         3. 3. Design
      5. v. Gripper
         1. 1. Pneumatic
            1. a. Benefits
            2. b. Problems
         2. 2. Position control
         3. 3. Design
      6. d. Demos
      7. e. Activities