Week 11: Machine

The CBA section is amazing this week, people have brilliant ideas and skillsets, and I tried my best to help.

PART I | Brainstorm and Prototype

  1. brainstorm

    We started with two general directions: food-related machine and sound-related machine.

    For food direction, we talked about making noddle using additive method and carving apple using deductive method (we made a trip to the lathe machine and talked about our ideas there).

    For sound direction, we talked about making a piano-plating machine (we made a trip to the piano in E15 and realized that there was already a similar project done on the same piano).

    Here is a page of notes from our brainstorming meeting.

  2. prototype

    So we landed on the idea of building an apple lathe machine, and I decided to join the mechanics group as well as help with overall documentation of the process.

    After Alfonzo designed a prelimenary model, we started to build and test with cardboard/woodpanel prototypes.

    Meanwhile, we were meeting one to twice a day as a whole group to update each other on the progress of individual teams.

    Here are some images of our mechanics team showing our progress and Eyal and Joao from the software team showing initial interface prototyping.

PART II | Building and Testing

  1. building

    After finalizing the mechanics design, we started to 3D print the parts.

    There are lots of failures with Prusa and Sindoh at the brginning.

    Then we adjusted the fill to 100% fill, using mainly the prusas in CBA lab.

    We have several more group meetings along the way, and the electronic team is giving updates and negotiating with the UI team on how to communicate.

    Then we began assembling all 3d printed parts. Lots of heat pressing and screw and nuts.

    Everyone was working together in one space on the last two days for better collaboration, and we ordered pizza!!!

  2. testing

    On the last two days, we were testing with spinning, zeroing, end-effector, and apples!

PART III | Presentation and Documentation

  1. show and tell

    It is show and tell time! Yeah! I love our Applestruder!

  2. documenting and editing

    I checked out cameras, tripods and recorders for our final product branding video. (we referenced Apple's product video...hhhh)

    Also, together with the other ACT people, we made a short video documenting the entire process from brainstorming to testing.

    Here is a link to the CBA group page of machine week.