10 Mechatronics

Top example of breaking the problem down in today's class Lucy and Earina decided to look at the grip part of their arm. A narrow piece of card being pulled with string taped to its edges was quite sticky and hard to move. I suggested a T shaped piece to increase the leverage and maybe trying some pieces of card or paper to act as washers and we had a good discussion that ranged through these issues and produced some good ideas for the next stage of testing. This is what you should be doing - taking one aspect of the design and investigating how you can make it. Looking at the problems and finding possible solutions or ruling out things that don't work. You also need to record what it is you are doing in your blogs.

Pulleys Watch the video and then we'll have a look at some calculations. We'll also look at the link between levers and pulleys in terms of the reduction in force and the increase in distance the force and load move.

Simple Machines Part 1 -  Levers If you don't know about the six types of simple machine watch this short video: Levers Make a lever out of cardboard and investigate the relationship between how far the ends move at different distances from the pivot. Share your process (what you did and why you did it) and your findings (what you found out) on your blog. You might want to take some pictures or video your explanation. Extension - How does the shape of the lever affect what you found? What if the lever is curved or is L shaped? What if the pivot is at the end of the lever and both the 'ends' are therefore on the same side?

Lesson 2 Degrees of freedom. Watch the following video on degrees of freedom in robotics. Working in pairs Watch the following videos  Conduct your own research  Produce a google slide explaining DoF Can include diagrams, videos make your presentation interesting.  Each individual post your Google Slide in Google Classroom Due 8am Tomorrow morning

Today 14/05/18 Welcome to the course What we will be doing? Hydraulics vs Pneumatics Create your blog Research the difference between Hydraulics and Pneumatics Why would we choose one over the other look and comment on two other student blogs