For this weeks group assignment, we decided to make an automated zen garden that people can draw directly onto through a web interface. It utilized the core xy design as reference. My contribution to the project involved ideation and physical fabrication. I primarily worked in the hardware team and aside from building all the framing components (both in wood and extrusion) I contributed towards many aspects of the physical construction of the machine such as designing the magnet holder, the wooden frame, the shade for the light, assembling panels of plexi onto cut extrusions, dimensioning extrusions and assembling the structure etc. Ozgun, I, Wedyan, and Leticia were the primary members who stayed back many nights to complete the hardware componenets of the project.
Machine Building Group Project
Trials and Tribulations
I created a custom wooden frame from scratch for the zenbot we created. First I sourced wood, then processed the wood into frame components on the table saw, then cut them into 45 degree pieces on the miter saw and got ready for assembly
IAfter gluing the frame components together, I stained the wood and let it dry over night. The frame building part took about 4 days in total
the top of the frame needed a secondary layer to protect the LED from being too visible/noticeable so I created a new shade layer and attached it to the framing. I also worked with Wedyan to encase the LED lights inside frosted plexi coverings as a first attempt to diffuse their glare
Aside from the wooden component, I also did majority of the extrusion cutting and assembling in coordination with ozgun. We were often the last ones at the Mars Lab working late into the next morning and trouble shooting the hardware components nonstop until the project was ready to be displayed.
The hardware team and the software team worked somewhat independently of one another and in the future it would have been better to work more closely together throughout the entire building process. We noticed some difficulty in integrating our systems together during the class demo. It would have been better to test and iterate on the sofware more thoroughly before presenting to the class.
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