Team:Alberta/Project/Automation
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Due to the fact that no sensors were really used in the final plan for this robot, the calibration of its movement was one of the single most time consuming and aggravating parts of the whole process. Due the the fact that all the distances were 'dead reckoned' rather than sorted out on the fly, many times and distances had to be estimated and ultimately changed in an iterative process that allowed for something that came close to working. | Due to the fact that no sensors were really used in the final plan for this robot, the calibration of its movement was one of the single most time consuming and aggravating parts of the whole process. Due the the fact that all the distances were 'dead reckoned' rather than sorted out on the fly, many times and distances had to be estimated and ultimately changed in an iterative process that allowed for something that came close to working. | ||
- | One of the problems that was discovered during this calibration process is the problem the physical set up posed with | + | One of the problems that was discovered during this calibration process is the problem the physical set up posed with odometry. There seems to be a problem somewhere in either the motors themselves or some firmware/software issue, and the issue is such that some of the robots travelled distance 'disappears' as far as it is concerned. Due to the dead reckoning, it is vital that the robot be able to know how far it has traveled, so that it will be able to make it back, after it has traveled some distance. This is also important for it being able to accurately strike the wells, and also for staying within the boundaries of the plate. |
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+ | <div style="height: 400; background:#FFFFFF; colorou line-height:100% padding: 3px 0px;"> | ||
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+ | <h2>Results</h2> | ||
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+ | <h4>What it actually does:</h4> | ||
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+ | <h4>Problems</h4> | ||
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+ | <li>Sensitivity to initial conditions | ||
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+ | Odometry | ||
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+ | Sensitivity to power levels | ||
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Revision as of 22:30, 18 October 2009
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DIY AutomationOne of the main themes of this project, as well as iGEM in general, is that simplification of both parts and processes provided by the synthetic biology movement are capable of bringing relatively advanced biological techniques 'to the masses'. With one of the DNA assembly techinques that have been developed during the course of the summer, the goal was to speed up and simplify a very time consuming process. The hope is that it would be simple enough to be used by high school students. Better yet, a trained monkey. Even better still, a simple robotic device, thereby leaving the both the original lab technician, the high school student, and the trained monkey more time for beer, which leads to the situation where a lab techician, high school student and monkey all walk into the bar (cliche, I know). |
The Robotic DeviceSo about this robotic device. Since the DNA assembly method consists mainly of a few repeated and simple actions, interspersed with relatively long wait periods, it seemed like a good canidate for a little bit of automation. This little automaton is built entirely out of a popular plastic construction set, using the only the standard pieces and hardware.
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Hardware and Software
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Getting to a Working Prototype
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Results
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Future Work
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In the event that you want to build it yourself...
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