Individual Reflection - Tyler

Upon taking ME 250, I have learned a lot about the Design and Manufacturing Process and working in groups with my peers. I have a better understanding of the actual processes entailed in thinking up and creating the parts and modules needed for your ideas. ME 250 allowed us to have firsthand experience in machine shop work and metallurgy involved in shaping raw metals and minor materials into a concept, like an automated machine, to help solve a problem. Here on Team Power Serge, the guys really learned a lot about each other’s work habits, abilities, and how to implement the guidance of Professors Hart and Umbriac as well as our GSI, Serge.

The first major step for the team was to come up with a strategy and concept that would effectively achieve the goal of collecting balls on the ball tower arena. This was the first major team work and decision based aspect for our team. We wanted a machine that would be different from the others, be versatile in design, and would effectively achieve our goal of capturing the balls. We came up with the idea of a machine that would be able to pull the ball tower to the hole on one side of the arena, and if need be collect balls on the course. With an idea in mind, we then got into the real meat of the class in having to design our robot, figure out how to build it with the given materials, and successfully manufacture it.

The course aspects of Design and manufacturing work are where I feel that I made the most strides and progress. I have a better understanding of how to make the CAD drawings and approval drawings needed in order to tool parts in the first place. Working with the other Power Serge team members to get these drawings made and approved helped me gain additional knowledge and understanding on when in the field an engineer would have to get a drawing made and approved before the metal is even touched. There will be instances where your drawings will be denied or altered time and again before it meets specifications or design approval. When dimensioning holes, it is best to create a single datum and create your dimensions from there.

Once our drawings were approved and in the shop, we were versed in the use of the mill, lathe, hack saw, and other elementary machine shop tools. The team realized that time management was a major aspect in getting our project finished on time. The bot itself was quite complicated, with tank treads, a paddle wheel  and rotating hook arms. We were able to finish the robot and initially get it to work, but we saw great disappointment in the competition when the drive shafts were not fully attached to the tank driven wheels and the bot was not able to move.

In hindsight, I see a lot of places that the team could have improved in completing the project. Time management was a major factor in completing our assignment. Had we done more planning and building in earlier phases of the class, we would not have had to rush in the end. We also had issues in the sizes of some of our bearings, and in adjusting to these miscalculations our drive shafts were affected. Overall the class was definitely a learning experience. We learned how to adjust our schedules and coordinate with each other and other groups to get the job done. Although we did not come in first place, Team Power Serge definitely took giant leaps in the ME 250 Design and Manufacturing I course.