Brainstroming

the learning experience

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We were too idealistic with the print, and it came out with too many gaps such that it wouldnt hold the pipes tightly. We were then stuck with either adding amendments, or redo the entire print. 

it felt like a waste, especially having troubled Tony and the team to power up the large printer for us. But Tony kindly said otherwise, that it was a learning experience! #positivethinking 

 

and so with that we got to work on a new design

but first, a quick test of the various dimensions that could fit — something we didn’t want to do initially, but realized the importance of doing so. We thought this step could be omitted because its a waste of materials, and takes time in itself to print — but we learnt the hard way that there is greater wastage when the dimensions are imprecise… 

 

daily pilgrimage

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Fridays are the days where most groups are taking a break

but because our group takes turns to take a break on different days, we pretty much came everyday… 

With the arrival of the solar panels, we went to test it out in the open, and it worked surprisingly well, generating a voltage of 14.4V even under a cloudy sky. 

The next problem was how to attach it to the existing frame. 

After some thought and consideration, we changed the orientation from flat right on top of the boat to a roof-like structure. This will prevent it from collecting water at the top, allow drainage if it were to rain.

Taking inspiration to make the boat more modular so that assembly will be easier,  we came up with another grand plan. 

Now what is left is to make the frames to hold the pipes; which will involve 3D printing and the dreaded use of Fusion 360 once more…

Things to do: (by priority)
- 3D print for the 4inch pipe
- 3D print for the hole in the polycarbonate 
- 3D print for 2inch to the alumnium profile

aim is to print all by tmr (or at least by the cmg wk) so we can secure all of them on weds

underwater drone 2.0

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We ended the day with taking reference from the ‘Underwater Drone’, a previous project done by a group of seniors. 

Tony also directed us on what to do next: with aluminum supports, craft a clasp to attach the support to the pipe– and finally, a 3D printing project!

That concluded a to-do list for tomorrow: 

  1. follow up on the swimming pool booking
  2. find out who did the underwater drone project and ask for advice
  3. 3D print a clasp
  4. Procure covers for the PVC pipe so that water does not enter the pipe.

Rendezvousing at the whiteboard, we laid out what was in store for our project:

Cleaned and final version by Zheng Xun

The sun started to set, and so we set off for our homes, ready to complete the agenda the next day.

Not without first having a bit of fun with our pipes…

Continued

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Apparently, there were some miscommunications. The guys expected a larger diameter of the pipe, and Tony, well let’s just say Tony didn’t expect us to purchase the pipe at all. In the moment, it was a sense of helplessness and frustration.

Tony was confused as to the mechanics of our boat. That session, we learnt what the PVC pipes were for: stability. One on each side, not on all 4 sides due to the unstable nature of the box. The PVC pipes were meant to be used to prevent capsize, if the pipes were longer than the box. Putting PVC pipes as a lifebuoy would not help with stability at all. 

Moreover, the box we purchased was too buoyant. The high volume ratio meant that little water would be displaced when put into a pool, something we greatly overlooked. We only considered buoyancy, and having made rough calculations, we decided to play super safe in getting a large box such that it would be able to float. While we thought we had settled the issue of not floating; we failed to consider the other extreme: too much floating! 

“Then how?”

Anita took it all in stride. “No blaming. We are a team.” She was a role model and her moving forward mindset carried the disheartened us forward. We gathered together and discussed the next steps. What if we bought a smaller box? What if we used a swimming board? Can we get ideas from other boats? How about that previous project on the ‘Underwater Drone’?

It felt like we were back to the drawing board; like we took a sprint forward, but only to realize we had to go back to the starting line. But as Zheng Xun rightfully pointed out, “we are better now than we once was, nothing was wasted.” It was all part of learning, you win some, you lose some. 

And though it was not the ideal experience, it was a fruitful and lesson filled one. We came together as a team,  instead of falling apart. We took into account a lot of other considerations: first buoyancy, now stability, and then in the later part, mobility. It wasn’t easy, but we sat ourselves down and came up with many drafts and drew many rafts (yes I am a poet now)… 

Sketches and Workings

After discussing for an hour, we came up with a second draft and presented it to Tony. Anita our spokesperson made the meeting light hearted albeit the initial downcast atmosphere.

Though he was rushing home, he stayed back to help us figure out a compromise and how to move forward from here. 

Armed with a way forward, we were slightly more optimistic and had a better direction on how to proceed for the next meeting! 

Yet another long and tiring day, that paved way for the next.

tinking part 2

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“The wonders of life can be done simply.”

Dr Ho was particularly fond of our umbrella idea, but Tony, not so much. Tony was the voice or reason and an advocate for setting realistic goals. After browsing through senior’s past projects and looking through more inspiration, the biologist in us manifested in our ideas to make a machine/robot that can climb trees! 

But that too had a lot of physics and robotics involved. With little background in coding and mechanics, our group settled on something more achievable but equally fun: the pseudo fish. With the hope of being able to get some underwater footage as to what really lies under the pond located at our halls of residence: Crespion Hall. Of course, the bigger problem statement we were solving was with marine ecologists in mind, where human presence is likely to disturb the natural behaviour marine life. So making our underwater camera externally designed like a fish could hopefully provide a solution.

The next step was to figure out how we were going to design this. 

 

tinking part 1

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“Do you know the second law of thermodynamics? Its like when a droplet of water enters the puddle and there are ripples formed outward, but you don’t see ripples coming back together and a droplet shooting out.” -Dr Ho

Our first meeting and there were a lot of ideas thrown around. We didn’t really know how to start but we all knew we wanted to do something fun and exciting, and that provides a lot of convenience to our daily lives… It went from robotic window cleaners which functions principally by magnetism to make cleaning a safer job, or maybe shoelace tie-r so you’ll never need to bend down and tie your shoelaces!

Then there were fun projects like a glitter bomb, or taking inspiration from drones that can shoot out fire to shoot out water instead (to put out fires, you know), to nut sorters because you need someone to sort out nuts when you bought the assortment packet, right? And what about an electrical encyclopedia that can help you identify birds that you see outside the window in NTU? Or how about an umbrella that can follow you around, or even better — one that sprays out water droplets so you can be cooled as you trek from dorm to the Hive… #combattingclimatechange

 Consisting of 3 biological sciences students and 1 computer science, our ideas were classified as very creative, but overly idealistic. After the first consultation with Dr Ho and an informal crash course on physics and the 2nd law of thermodynamics, it was clear that yet another round of brainstorming was necessary… 

Relevant links of inspiration:

Fire Shooting Drone , Glitter Bomb for Porch Pirates