Learning Outcomes
Despite taking ENPH 253 in a non-traditional environment, our experience achieved many of the same learning goals and explored new challenges.
Electrical Noise
During testing, our members frequently felt the effects of EMI through ill-protection of our microcontroller.
We opposed these issues methodically, isolating the troubled component to ensure we were dealing with a noise issue and not some faulty unit, and then improving protective measures such as varying decoupling capacitors, using shielded cable, or adding an optoisolator.
Plastic Structure
Students were recommended to use a thin, corrugated plastic sheet as the robot's main build material. This resource had very clear drawbacks, being clumsy, thin, and fragile.
A lot of planning went into designing a sound structure and these initial precautions were worthwhile as our robots seldom broke during testing.
Developing a Robotic System
The integration of the mechanical, electrical and software subsystems was an important aspect of the robot’s design.
Through experimentation, we explored the interplay between subsystems and discovered crucial relationships between battery voltage and PID control, software timing and mechanical movements, etc.