NXT Function Robots Project

1. NXT Function Robots Project By Jack G. and Ian H.

2. Topic: NXT Function Robots Project Why did we choose this? We (Jack and Ian) decided to work on NXT robots that work well for daily functions and fun activities. We also had a good prior knowledge of how to use NXT robots from a previous unit and we wanted to take basic skills and try to evolve them into a better skill set. We also both have fun with making new things. The robots we wanted to make were an automatic card-shuffler and a rubber band crossbow. We hoped we would finish both by the end of the project. Project presentation outline: We will be presenting what we did over this make project. We will be reporting what we have done over this unit, including how we spent our time, when we did team meetings, documentation, and changed in our progress. We will also be showing you pictures and videos of what we have built and some research we have done. We will also include feedback we have been given on this project.

3. Work Report Work Plan Team meetings Team Assignments Team members effort Research Trials / Experiments Feedback Documentation Any changes In process

4. Work Plan To plan for this project we used Google Calendars. Before we began the work of this project (researching and building) we had a plan set up. This plan included a description of what we were going to do everyday. We hoped we would be able to keep up with this plan.

5. May 28 Weekly Teamwork Meeting:“Last week we were supposed to switch roles again. We tried getting Jack to do some of the analysis on Friday but the page was blank except for the programming and picture section. Ian worked on Fridays documentation today. Mr. Mcloud told us that Jack should be doing the documenting this week. Ian will try to help him with some of it, but it will be mainly done by Jack. If we don't finish it completely because he hasn't done much of it before we will try to do it in academic lab on tuesday next week.” • May 21 Weekly Teamwork Meeting:“Last week we switched roles on friday and we plan to do that again sometimes this week. Ian should try to do more building because he doesn't do much of that and needs to work harder in that area. Jack has been doing some documenting but only really feedback, teamwork meetings and videos. We hope that Jack will do some of the Analysis and that Ian will do more of the building.” • May 14 Weekly Teamwork Meeting:“We worked well last week but didn't have much teamwork. Jack did all the building and Ian did all the documenting. This is ok because it fits our skills but we should work together more so we can learn new things. This week (excluding today because Jack was not here) we will try to switch our roles. We will try to do different things this week. Jack will work on some documenting and research and Ian will work on some building.” • May 7 Weekly Teamwork Meeting:“This week we have been working well together. We plan to have the same jobs as last time. Last time we worked well together and made a good shooting prototype. Next class we both plan to take apart the prototype and start making a bigger version that will be robotic and pull back. Jack will be the builder and Ian will document.” • April 30 Weekly Teamwork Meeting:“We have been doing well on this project. It has just started and we did a good job on inventory and it did not take up the whole class. It only took up a short period of time. Probably half of the class. Our roles for this week plan to be... Ian - Main Documenter and Co-Builder. Ian will also do research and look at images of crossbow designs. Jack will be the Main-Builder, as his good prior expierence with NXT.” Team Meetings Every we week we tried to talk to each other about our teamwork for the past week and what we plan to do the current week. This helped our group members stay working well and make sure that someone is not doing all of the work. They worked effectively the first few weeks but the last few they were not as effectively probably because it was getting to the end of school.

6. Team Roles and Assignments Every once in a while we would switch roles in our team so that we both would be able to learn new things. Sometimes Ian would be a builder and sometimes Jack would document. Both of us worked very well together. We were able to finish a lot of the crossbow but took it apart because we decided we would rather do the card-shuffler. When we worked on that we finished it very fast as well. Our main roles were: Ian: Documenter and CO-Builder and Communications, Jack: Builder and CO-Documenter and Project Manager Lego NXT Book Documentation Rubric

7. Ian: Documenter and CO-Builder and Communications • Jack: Builder and CO-Documenter and Project Manager • We followed our intended jobs god but we Jack did not do so much documenting but that is the only thing that was bad about our team members effort. Other than that we worked well. Team Members Effort We both put a lot of effort into this project. During our first robot we attempted Jack put in most of the effort because he had done one before. Ian put effort in the card shuffler because he thought it would be a cool idea. We both put effort into building the robots but Ian put more effort into documenting.

8. Research We mainly did not research for this project. We have been doing this project and building by trail and error. Sometimes we used the NXT book to help us with parts for our designs. For example, the gears we used in the card shuffler were the same ones in the original taskbot design with some changes.

9. Changes In Progress: • We had many changes in progress for this project. We were behind what we planned for a lot of parts in this project. We wanted to get a rubber band crossbow to work mechanically but that didn’t work out so we decided to do the card shuffler. • Trials • We have had some errors on making designs for these projects. For the crossbow we spent most of our time on a prototype before we started the actual thing so we should’ve spent more time on the actual thing. We weren’t able to finish the robot part of the crossbow, so from that error we decided that when we started the card-shuffler the robot part should be the first thing that we work on. Trials / Experiments and Changes in Progress So for trails and experiments we first we tried to make a rubber band crossbow, but we failed to make it robotic, but we still made a working crossbow. After that we started working on the card shuffler, and finished it in 6 days, but it does not work as well as we hoped it to be. It ended up just tossing the cards around, so we made a rig to prevent the cards from going everywhere.

10. Go to Wiki http://engagemc.wikis.birmingham.k12.mi.us/Ian+H.+Jack+G.+AP2

11. Conclusion Work Effort: Overall we have almost met our expectations on this project. We had a working crossbow although it was unrobotic, and we had a working card-shuffler. Teamwork: We had good teamwork throughout this project. Both of us tried to work on all the jobs for this assignment. Improvement: We have improved a in some skills when we did this project. We started with a 12 out of 40 and then the next week we got a 40 out of 40. We had improvement in teamwork, effort, and following the directions given to us. What we made: Currently, with us is the card-shuffler. We finished it but it is not as great as we hoped. It works, but it scatters cards everywhere instead of organizing the shuffled cards in a neat pile.