ME5643: Mechatronics Final Project

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ME5643 Mechatronics Final Project

• Monday December 17, 2012
• Paul Phamduy
• Cristiano Del Rosso
• Michael Trumpis

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Motivation

• Proverb Give a man a fish and you feed him for
  a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a
  lifetime

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Motivation

• If you teach a robot how to fish?

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Motivation

• Advantages
• Reduced moisture during robot fish handling
• Reduced risk of shock/electric damage to circuit
  of robotic fish
• Ability to swap robotic fish when low on
  batteries
• Automated experimentation and data acquisition

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Motivation

• Potential uses in the Dynamical Systems Laboratory

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Proposed solution

• To create a automated robotic fish handling
  system, we proposed a robotic arm with infrared
  sensors

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Mechanical Design

• The robotic arm has two degrees of freedom
  actuated by two servos
• The robotic arm has a roll joint followed pitch
  joint
• The end effector of the robotic arm is a net to
  catch the robotic fish

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Mechanical Design
counter weight slots
standard servo
holes for net
continuous rotation servo
base
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Electrical Design

• A button is used to reset the position of robotic
  arm with the net in the water
• An infrared sensor is used to detect the robotic
  fish through the water tank

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Electrical Design
infrared detector
infrared emitter
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Software Design

• The pseudocode structure is
• Wait for the reset button
• Position arm with net in water tank
• Wait for sensor to detect robotic fish
• Raise arm and net
• Turn the arm to the side

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Software Design
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Bill of Materials

• From Basic Stamp kits
• Basic Stamp
• Standard servo
• Continuous rotation servo
• Infrared LED
• Infrared detector
• Parts not in Basic Stamp kits
• Fish net
• Fish tank
• ASB 3D printed parts from Dimension
• Lead counter weights
• Robotic fish and remote control

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Implementation

• Robotic arm prototype

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Robotic Arm Video
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Advantages/Disadvantages

• Advantages
• Mechanically capable of catching robotic fish
  with a fish net
• Infrared LED and detector are feasible sensors
  for detection through water from preliminary
  testing
• The design prototype provides a quick and low
  cost method for automated experimentation with
  the robotic fish

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Advantages/Disadvantages

• Disadvantages
• Mechanical design can be improved for better
  mobility (with greater degrees of freedom) and
  improved structurally
• Electrical circuits are currently not
  waterproofed and risk being damaged
• Infrared sensor is currently not integrated into
  the system
• Software programming is basic and can be improved
  to interact with video camera for data aquisition

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Future Work

• Work on improved structural design of the robotic
  arm and net
• Integration into automated experimentation with
  multiple robotic fish
• Utilize automated robotic fish with live fish
  experiments