Whipped Cream Green 3 Adrian Hanson

Our whipped cream project was rushed into finalization. The team did not expect to be given such a severe deadline when we walked in on Wednesday. Our design from the previous class we decided was a failure and we looked to the machine built by the other class for inspiration. Interestingly enough this design was very similar to my original plans. The only differences being the nozzle was pulled with more a pulley system and there was a lot more duct tape. We had Daniel help in building the basket to hold the can in place. We attached the motor to the side of the box supports with duct tape. After several trial runs we realized some new things. For one, we recorded the correct setting for the motor so it would pull the nozzle correctly. We also did away with the gate, because the whipped cream dispensed before the robot even reached it. After we decided all the kinks were worked out we ran the test for the final time. Victory never tasted so good.

Whipped Cream - Green 3 - Tom Boyle - A Recap

This project was completely extraordinary. It was full of ups and downs, excitement and disappointment, wins and losses, successes and failures. I won't lie, it was extremely difficult to dispense whipped cream out of a can with a robot. However, we did it. It might have taken four different designs, but we did it. It might have taken until 30 seconds before the deadline to work out all the kinks, but we did it. Here, I will document the story.

Day 1
On day 1, our original design was to have the whipped cream flipped upside down supported completely by legos (a distinction that will be important on day 6), and the nozzle would be pulled by a tire looped around the nozzle attached to a motor.

Day 2
The vertical design proved difficult to build out of legos, so we switched to a more structurally sound horizontal design. The can would rest, with a slight elevation on the back, on a bed of legos. The whipped cream would be dispensed using essentially the same design as described in "Day 1" above, being pulled by a tire attached to a motor.

Day 3
It was a bleak, sorrowful day for the Green 3 Whipped Cream Dream Team. We worked the entire class on making the build more stable. The biggest task was getting the whipped cream to actually dispense. The tire would pull, but it did not have enough power to get the nozzle to move. We held back tears as we left the classroom.

Day 4
As we were about to hang our heads in defeat, a light shone from above. This light....was Daniel Poschel. Daniel, a member of the Conveyor Group, had already finished his teams design, build, and program. He was gracious enough to lend a helping hand by creating a radically different design. This design consisted of two motors duct taped to the whipped cream can, as this was the only stable way for the machine to work, with a device on the top that would pull the nozzle. It was a good design, and worked far better than our original horizontal design. We left the classroom that day with hope in our hearts and a mess of whipped cream on our books. Little did we know the failures that would beset us on day 5...

Day 5
This was it. 65 minutes to get our robot to work. We couldn't let the team down. We worked furiously to get all the right settings on our program so the robot would effectively and efficiently dispense the goods. And then, it happened. We had our hands poised under the can so as to catch and whipped cream that may dispense. We had doubts that it would, but we did it anyway. We pressed that orange button. We ran that program. We caught that whipped cream. I wish I could describe that moment, but it was beyond words. I felt the tears glistening in my eyes. Unfortunately, the tears of joy turned to a different type of tears soon enough. Robots have to be effective repeatedly, not just once. When we placed the robot on the assembly line, it did not function properly. I believe we got about one dollop of the goods on one bowl of ice cream, but that was it. We thought that was the last time we would have a chance to get it to work, so we left the classroom that day with a chins to our chests.

Day 6 - Final Exam Day
Coache Hollers had told us that on the final exam day we would merely be inventorying the kit pieces and that's all. When he walked into the room that day, I could feel something coming. He told us that we had 90 minutes to get the assembly line working, and then said his signature "Let's get to work." We leaped into action. Once again, we changed the design. This time we changed it back to a design more reminiscent of the original design on day 1. However, this time the can was not supported merely by Lego pieces, but rather it nestled into lego pieces stretched across two boxes. It was stabilized by lots of duct tape. It took almost the entire 90 minutes, but we finally got it to work efficiently and effectively. It was a glorious moment.


Overall, this project gave me an insight into how important the build and design of a robot is. It doesn't matter if your program is flawless; if your build is ineffective, nothing will go right.

Thank you for your time.

Whipped Cream, Green 3, Tony D'Arienzo

It was an intense hour and a half redesigning our whipped cream dispenser, and every group was working to get their station ready.  By the end of that grueling time period, every station, especially the whipped cream dispenser, finally worked. We went back to a design similar to our original design, and it worked perfectly. With help from quite a bit of duct tape, the robot was able to dispense the whipped cream without flaws. Looking back on the project, it was a very interesting challenge that required a lot of time and patience. It also required creative thinking and problem solving skills. We combined those skills and requirements to finally finish the job. Communicating with the other groups was another part of completing the task. We communicated with the conveyor group often because that group was the key group. If that group could not relay their plan with us, then our device would not work. In the end, our groups were on the same page, and as a result, the whole sundae line worked very well. There were still a few flaws with the system. The flaws included the conveyor robot not being able to roll back over objects and the conveyor robot being knocked off course, among others. These flaws were small and did not really affect the sundae line’s performance. Overall, the project was good, and it was a success for every group. This class was a great class, and I will never forget this final project.

Nick Ireland Syrup dispensor gold 2

From this project I have learned that not every project is easy, but you can have a lot of fun. The hardest part about this project is the fact that we have to build the robot around the material we have. The easiest part about this project was setting it up to be in the same connection with the other robots. this class has been amazing and would retake it if I had the chance. The sundae project was great because after we were done, we got to eat ice cream. It has been fun, but now summer is here and I have got to go.

Mr. Holler’s robotics class proved to be a challenge for me this year. I really enjoyed building the different robots and learning how they work. The race just a few weeks ago was the most entertaining with the varying designs (even though my team came in last).  I was able to connect with my fellow students in multi-group projects, and in the many different projects available in this class. My favorite project was the self-parking project where we had to program the NXT to detect several different pieces of black tape positioned on the floor that would guide it through. All of the projects were fairly easy with the exception of a few errors.

Gold 2 Frank Reyhan Syrup dispensor

After a lot of hard work and determination, our robot works. It finally allows syrup out of the container and doesn't pick up the cup on the way back. There is some recoil with the syrup though but it still works.We did some test runs with everyone and they didn't all work but overall it went smoothly. Hopefully after everyone fixes their problems, there will be a perfect run that will result it a great sundae. It was a great way to end the year in robotics and I will miss this class going in to the summer.

Gold 2 Sprinkles Summary

From this project I learned how to build the robot more creatively so you don’t have to use tape on your design.  I also learned that some pieces on the nxt kit can be manipulated to let something be secure and not slip off. The hardest things about this project definitely the building part of it.  Our original design involved tape and could have been less time consuming, but would not have secured the sprinkle contain good enough for it to tip over and back.  So then we built a holder for the sprinkles contain.  And the sprinkles container slid in nicely.  The easiest part of this project was writing the program.  We only need to test the robot a couple of times then we were done.

What I learned when working with the Whipped Cream - Michael Muller

I learned a lot working with this final project. One of the things that I learned is that with robotics there is a LOT of trial and error. We went through numerous design ideas, and revamped the project completely twice. Fortunately through perseverance and fortitude we were able to surpass the desire to give up and concentrate our efforts on something else. Another thing we learned is that structure is just as important as the virtual code. The structures that we had built in our numerous design options were not as stable as the final option, even though the final design looked awful with duct tape all over it. All in all I had a fun experience with this project and had fun in class with YOU coach Hollers :)

Austin Hayden - What I learned in Robot School is...

Throughout this course, I have learned how to program an NXT Robot using the Complete Palate as well as with Data Wires. I also learned how to use the sensors with the switch, loop, and wait classes. The hardest for me would have been figuring out how to sync my NXT Brick with my partner since the video we were shown only taught us what happened when the two Bricks were connected via Bluetooth. The easiest part for this course was constructing attachments for the NXT Robot for the different programs we were assigned. I really enjoyed this class and have already started recommending it to others.

Gold 2 Conveyor Group

There were many things that we learned after completing this project. One of the main things that we learned is that simplicity in robotics is important. It is important that one tries to find the easiest way to do something so that it will be easier to correct or change if corrections or changes are needed. We also learned that sometimes it is difficult to be simple. For example, the whipped cream group had by far the most difficult job. In order to complete their task, they needed to come up with something that was innovative and difficult. For our conveyor group, it was not very difficult to come up with a simple way of running the conveyor. It took up a couple of class periods and a couple of drafts, but we eventually came up with a simple and efficient way of running our conveyor. Lastly, we learned the importance of working together. Each individual has unique ideas, and they should all be taken into consideration and not rejected.

Final Conclusions

This project was a very fun one. I learned a lot about robotics. I learned that on our own we can make a working robot that can make a successful Sunday. we all worked together and it also showed the ability of teamwork. I think the hardest part about this was the design of the robot. Without step by step instructions it was hard to put something together. The easiest part about was to write the program. we spent about 10 minutes fine tuning that. I will reccomend this class to all people. i had a great year.

Through this class, i have enjoyed being able to learn build and program robots that can preform tasks such as bouncing off walls, parallel park and hide from the light. The final project is designed to make us build and program multiple robots which will preform the function of adding toppings such as oreos, sprinkles, whipped cream and chocolate syrup. My most difficult part of the process was the physical build. At first my group build a "trap door" like wall, but the oreos stuck together. Then we decided to make a conveyor belt design which functioned by carrying the oreos and then dropping them into the ice cream.

The Whipped Cream has been released. (Gold 2 Michael Muller)

Unfortunately our idea about slamming away at a bag full of cream was not going to work, as previous groups had tried it, and they eventually failed miserably, left with a spoiled bag of cream. Fortunately we had the time to change our efforts into a new machine that would excrete the cream more efficiently and quicker. The idea was very similar to the first idea we had, which was to pull the nozzle to allow the cream to flow out effortlessly. We changed the line that was connected to the motor into duct tape, which held more stable than the previous string that we had connected the pieces with. Next instead of just relying on the pieces to hold the bottle that held the cream in place, we added some extra resistance to the pull of the motor with duct tape. After we were finished the bottle didn't move at all when the motors pulled on the cream, and the cream was able to come out and efficiently stop at just the perfect amount on top.

What i learned chris hagemeyer

The things i learned this project was how to program a robot to do certain tasks and how a robot works. I learned the way the robots processes commands and critical problem solving when it came to designing a robot to complete a certain task. The hardest thing i learned how to do was how to get the robot to drop the reeces smoothly with out a jam clogging the hole of the drop. The easiest part was designing the program of what the robot would do. It has been a great year and i have learned a lot about creating a design to function in the most efficent way.

Lucas Isbill- Final Post

On this project, I learned what is what like to be on a basic robotics and programming team and how to create cohesion between our idea, our design, and our program. The easiest part of the project was by far the program. It was a simple program since we didn’t use Bluetooth. The only testing for the programming we had to do was the amount of rotations needed for the drop. The most difficult part of the project was preventing the design from jamming. We had to change the design in minor ways multiple times and it didn’t fully work until the last second.

Gold 2: Conveyor Group

I learned so much from the completion of the robosundae project. I learned teamwork from having to get all of the groups together every class to discuss what each group was doing and how we were going to complete the project.
The hardest thing to do during this project was the code. Getting the code to work perfectly everytime was quite the task.
The most fun part was finally getting to see the whole conveyor line and all of the toppings work. It gave me a great sense of accomplishment.

Final words

In the final I learned about the importance of mechanics and fluidity that are required to engineer a functioning robot. Every part had to be in sync or it would fail completely. The hardest part of the robot was making all of it work together. Some parts missed the bowl and others over shot. It required a lot of troubleshooting. Another difficult part was the design itself. You had to develop the perfect design to go with the other designs. The easiest part was the programming. It was simple program that was on a loop and was easily executed by a sensor. Overall the project was pretty difficult.