More Robotix

Today we continued building a robot. We came up with some issues.
1. How will we get the object from one footish up to 28 inches?
2. How will we attach it to the robot?
3. How will we get it to be sturdy enough?

The next day we have labs we are going to have a team meeting

B2

Today we were sorted into groups for the mini culmination. I was put into B2 and I worked on Robotix with Louisa. We made a huge robot in only 15 minutes because we worked together. Our robot included a pully system, wheels, and a claw.

Commercials

Launching from the Moon

My partner and I worked on launching from the moon lab. We had to launch a straw and objects up a string using a balloon. We didn't accomplish our task but we leaned more about how every action has an equal and opposite reaction because te balloon forced air out one way and it moved the opposite direction. We think this is important for M2M because we will need to know a lot about pressure and forcing air to move things.

Remote Repairs

In this lab I worked with Alice and Honore. We each got a computer and opened skype. We used skype to talk to eachother and we both had a lego object that was completed and one that was just pieces. We had to describe the completed one to the person with uncompleted version. We had some difficulties at first because our pieces were accidentally mixed up. After we got that out of the way we continued with the lab. It was difficult to describe the pieces but I think it was helpful because we learned that it is really important to listen to instructions and to communicate well.

Robotix

I was given several bags of robot pieces in a big tub. My mission was to create some different robots to accomplish different things. Each action needed a different motor, and each motor needed a different controller. I made both of my robots to be able to move and grab a pen. I think this was helpful because in M2M we might have to build a robot and we will need to know how to make it move. It was all very complicated because there were so many wires and I kept forgetting that each movement needed a motor and a controller.

Africa Score

Thrust Structures Experiment.

Motion Lab

1. We could connect the numbers because its the same variable, we would just need to plug it into movement.
2. You could just go the same speed the whole time (vilosity=speed and acceleration=change)
3. Different because the person would be changing postition and their speed would be speeding up too.
4. Because the sensitivity in the certain variables (vilosity is easy to change, but position isn't so its slower)
5. You could have a negative slope in position vs. time because you could walk towards the motion detector instead of away.

Geography picture

Robo Lab

Today I worked with Alice and Clara on the Robo Lab. Together we experimented with a robot to make it push a small Lego "rock" forward and up a ramp and completely stop before it fell off. It took several tries and we got very close but we couldn't make it stop on time before class was over. At the beginning we decided it would work best if we each made a different route for the same trip so we could try more ways faster. Although we did not finish, I believe that if we had more time, we could have completed our task.

Moon

If I were to play golf on the moon where the acceleration due to gravity is 1.6m/s^2 I would swing the club fairly easier than I would be able to on earth because there is less gravity to pull it in the opposite direction. The golf ball would probably also be able to go faster and farther because there will be more lift than gravity. This is because Newtons 3rd Law states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, when I swing my club at the golf ball, it will continue to swing back because I forced it to move forward and it doesnt want to stop because the energy I used to propel it forward will be used to keep moving.

Recovery System

Today i worked with Kimmy and Kathryn. We started by designing a parachute and securing a sand bag to it using string, hole puncher, plastic bag, and hair dryer. We started by cutting up a big plastic bag because it was too big. We tied four strings from the bag to the weight. This created strength and an equal balance. When we tried it by filling it with hot air, it still fell pretty easily. So I came up with an idea to add a second parachute above the first like a bi-plane. All though we never got to try this, we think it wouldv'e worked because the air wouldv'e flown through the two flaps to create lift, and it would go up slower so that it wouldnt come down to fast because of Newton's 3rd law