Northwestern Mechatronics
Last summer I took a class at Northwestern studying Mechatronics.
I studied electromechanical design and prototyping, building circuitry from scratch and coding in C. I learned and developed both hardware and software. I created lots of little machines: an alarm clock, stopwatch, keycard lock, and LED display.
Our final project was to independently build an autonomous robot that could drive around a course, with twists and turns, over and under ramps. Not only did we have to figure out how to program and wire the robot, telling it when to speed up and slow down, but also balance the robot, bringing it up and around the course without it crashing using our understanding of physics. I spent weeks prototyping a shopping cart shaped vehicle. My vision for this robot was for it to be a smart shopping cart, serving as a guide for shoppers and moving along aisles on its own. I programmed the robot using an Arduino and Teensy.
I also made a small app on my phone that would scan products and display item information and calculate the cost. I used CAD to model my robot’s frame and wheels.
Parts were 3D printed and laser-cut,
sensors and motors were mounted,
and circuit boards were soldered.
Soon, my shopping cart creation was complete!
On the day of our final competition, while all the parents were eager to see our robots in action, the class encountered an issue with the bright lighting of the room affected our robot’s light sensors. Amidst the panic, I made some last-minute changes to my code regarding sensor parameters and was able to fix my robot. After passing the code around, the whole class was able to compete. After lots of planning and work, and on-the-spot thinking, my shopping cart ran the course.
