Blog Post #8: Final Blog Post and Reflections

 I was inspired to create this project by the seven years I have spent participating in robotics at school and the rest of my life before that where I was exposed to math, science, and engineering constantly. I wanted to create something all by myself and use and develop skills related to design and engineering. A one-pound combat robot is an easy project to get into. They are small but come with a bunch of unique and interesting challenges and there is a lot of space for creative problem-solving and expression. 

Coming into this project I wanted to design and build two sub-one pound antweight combat robots and that is what I did. I am very proud of the two robots that I built as well as the punching bag I made to test them. Looking back at my blog posts, I realize I told you the names of these robots I created. The plastic robot is called the Plastic PLAtriot taking inspiration from Iron Man 3 as the only colors of filament I had going into the project were red, white, and blue for Vex Robotics license plates. The CF, TPU, and metal robot that I made is called Redox, the first good name that came to mind when I was naming my project in Inventor in the afternoon after my AP Chem test.

I feel like I somewhat under-delivered on this project, but a lot of that feeling stems from really high expectations that could not fit in the timeframe. There were a couple other things I wanted to try on my second robot that I ended up having to cut to save weight which was unfortunate. I also would have wanted to create at least one more iteration of each of the robots. Also, the fact that the metal parts are going to arrive on the 30th, just barely late, makes me kind of sad, but the delay was completely out of my control.

During my project, I learned a lot when it comes to bringing my ideas to life. On the design front, I feel much more confident with my ability to use programs like Autodesk Inventor to create parts and assemblies to bring them together. I got to learn a lot about my printer, its tolerances, how/why prints come out the way they do, and how to increase strength and rigidity or efficiently save weight. I actually used a CNC in the fab lab for the first time and learned how to machine carbon fiber. I got a lot more experience with electronics, putting a kit together myself then going through and finding upgrades to each of the parts and soldering everything together. I learned how to source parts and found many services like SCS and CNCmadness which I would recommend people use if they do anything similar. I also learned the importance of time management and setting realistic expectations for what I wanted to accomplish.

I think when planning projects it is important that it is something that you want to do. Especially with capstone projects, the only structure is what you make and there is a lot of time you have available. Enthusiasm is going to be one of the only things that drives you to actually create your project. I think another thing that is important is to set multiple goals. Especially in this project, I wanted to create a lot, but I wasn't able to do everything. What I did was still a lot, but I wish my original expectations matched my final product.

The biggest takeaway I had from this project was the importance of repeatedly trying and not getting discouraged. When something doesn't work, instead of feeling bad about it, all we need to do is find exactly where the problem is, change it, and try again. I went through countless iterations of every single part of every robot. Not a single thing you see in the final products is my first attempt. 

I would like to thank Mr. DiGiorgio for being my mentor on this project. He helped me a lot when I had questions about how to approach some problems as well as helped me when I needed to create some parts of my project in the fab lab which was also an amazing resource. I would also like to thank Dr. Greg Lee of CWRU. While I did not meet with him as much as I would have liked to, it was good to have someone else to provide some advice on how to proceed with my project.