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10.6 - Conclusion & Future Work

10.6 - Conclusion & Future Work

Accomplishments

Overall, our project was really successful! We went into the project concerned about how we would end up integrating two slider-cranks to get the results we wanted from our automated matcha whisker, but in the end, after several iterations and adjustments to our design, we were able to see our matcha whisker come to life on demo day. Plus, it seems as if we influenced and introduced a lot of people to matcha and how its made on demo day, which was really rewarding and fun to see in action. Even though we were not able to make our matcha whisker work consistently for a long period of time, due to a couple of misaligned gears or insecure points in the mechanism, we were able to successfully implement the project deliverables we had planned for in our project proposal. 

Future Work and Improvements

There are several major improvements that could be made to the design, such as:

  • We used a lot of superglue throughout our final design for attaching links to bearings, attaching 3D printed parts together, and securing gears to a bearing, so we could look into more precise and long-term solutions to fastening, like press-fitting.

  • Some redesign could be made so that the gears have a lower chance of misaligning while the robot is in motion, because right now, gravity and the force of the actuated motion make it prone to misalinging and stopping the mechanism from working

  • An adjustable mount could be added to the design to make it easier to remove and replace the matcha bowl under the mechanism, because right now, the entire top mount must be removed in order to access it

  • Assuming the design could be mass-produced, the robot’s electronics can be redesigned so that it doesn’t use the 9V battery we use now, and instead use a barrel jack power cord so that the mechanism can be plugged into a wall outlet for continuous use

    • Additionally, more features like a hot water dispenser, matcha powder dispenser, and a milk dispenser could be added to elevate our robot to an off-the-shelf product like the Keurig machines

Lessons Learned

  • We learned to test our assembly before securing or fastening any parts together, because we superglued some gears to shafts or bearings before we made sure that they were in the right place, which led us to struggle to take them off afterward, even breaking some acrylic parts in the process

  • We also learned to print 2 or 3 copies of vital parts of our assembly, in the event that a part would break or was lost to superglue

  • We learned that the height and placement of parts should not be ignored; We ended up having to revise our design due to parts colliding or blocking each other as we assembled our mechanism, so checking for any part collisions early on, both in CAD and with the physical parts, would have saved us a lot of stress

  • Lastly, we learned to test our mechanism multiple times outside of the robot enclosure before fastening any parts together to avoid having to disassemble the entire robot and to be able to make changes to our design before placing any parts of the mechanism inside of the robot

    • Also, we learned to slowly add parts to our final design, starting at the motor shaft leading up the end effector, so that any problems could be fixed at the root before making its way to the final shaft

Tips For Future Groups

  • Start prototyping and assembling as soon as you can so that you have enough time to troubleshoot any mechanical or design errors you might have missed when designing or modeling your design

  • If printing or cutting parts at TIW, plan to do so early on or be prepared to wait in a queue as other classes and students try to get their parts printed and cut as well. Try to avoid working in TIW the week before finals, as this is the busiest TIW gets, which will only delay your project more

  • Agree on a feasible project proposal and design based on your team’s skill that your group thinks they can accomplish by the end of the semester; Better to have a “simpler” design that works rather than something complex that’s not finished or doesn’t work by the end

  • Split the work as evenly as possible, and communicate with your team constantly, especially if you need help from your team

  • Make a timeline/schedule for your team to track the work being done for your project; Makes it easier to visualize the progress your team has made and the work that still needs to get done before any deadlines you or the class sets

Acknowledgements

This project was challenging but super rewarding and tasty, so we would like to thank Professor Symmank, David Gutierrez Moreno, and the Texas Inventionworks Staff for helping us along the way. We received a lot of constructive feedback and advice from Professor Symmank and David all throughout our design and build process that helped our project succeed. Additionally, we would like to thank Texas Inventionworks for not only providing the tools and resources we needed to successfully build our project, but also for having staff that was ready to help us and support us as we finished building our final design.