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.
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