Final Mission Journal Entry #1
Project Details
Date:
Club:
Team:
Team Members:
Mission Team Roles:
Attempt #:
Goal:
Which part of the mission:
What steps will we take:
What will each member do:
What were the results:
Assess and analyze mistakes:
rd
January 23 , 2017
Gallimore Elementary Robotics Club
Fire Breathing Rubber Duckies
Jacob Rider, Noah Short, Keshav Nair, Jack Elwell
Keshav and Jack are the programmers. Noah and Jacob are the platform
builders. Everyone helps with videotaping, map control, and other
related activities.
This is the 1st attempt at calculating optimal hatch angle and open time.
Defined Goal
The goal is to build a platform and delivery method, using Lego blocks,
that will drop two balls into cups, one at a time. We will be using a
swinging hatch delivery method. The platform will be attached to Dashs
body. The hatch will be attached to Dashs head and will swing below
the platform holding the balls as dash swings his head. As it opens it will
drop one ball in the cup. We need to determine the optimal angle for
the hatch to swing and the optimal time to remain open to allow only
one ball to drop and not impact the platform supports.
This is the part of the mission that delivers the balls to the cups. We are
attempting to build a platform that will hold two balls at a time but only
deliver one ball at a time to the cups by using a swinging hatch
connected to Dashs head.
Plan
We will determine the optimal angle and open time using the trial and
error method. Specifically, we will:
1. Build a basic prototype of the platform and hatch system.
2. Load two balls onto the platform.
3. Program Dash to swing his head at a specific angle and open time.
4. Run the program and observe the hatch movement and ball drops.
5. Repeat steps 2 through 4 as needed to determine the optimal open
time and angle of the hatch.
Jacob and Noah will conduct steps 1-5 together.
Results
Using the trial and error method we programmed several different
hatch angles and open times until we identified the combination that
worked best. See table 2 for the results of our hatch angle trials. See
table 3 for the results of our open time trials.
Since we used the trial and error scientific method we had made several
incorrect attempts. We do not consider these mistakes though since we
learned and adjusted after each one to finally arrive at the optimal
settings. That is how the trial and error method works. See table 2 and
table 3 for the complete incorrect trial results.
 Conclusion
What did we learn: We learned that the optimal hatch swing angle is 40 degrees. This
allows the hatch to swing enough to let a ball drop but not enough to
impact the platform support. We also learned that the optimal open
time is 0.1 seconds. This allows only one ball to cleanly drop at a time.
What are our next steps: Our next step is to build a platform that will carry two balls at a time
and work well with the swinging hatch delivery method. After that we
will deliver the platform, along with the calculations we determined
here, to the programming team (Keshav and Jack) to integrate into their
program.