�
����������� There are several items that need
improvement and they should become part of a new team�s objectives:
1.
Improve the center of gravity of the arm by
using lighter components and moving heavy objects, such as the motors, further
down in the arm.� The use of belts has
been examined in the past and was found to be rather expensive, but this would
greatly reduce the center of gravity of the arm.
2.
Make the arm lighter by selecting lighter
materials and components or further redesigning the arm.
3.
Investigate other ways to draw power off
of the
����������� This year�s team tried to be
consistent with motor selection to simplify controls and design.� This idea seemed to work very well and should
be improved upon in the future.� The goal
should be to use as many of the same motors as possible.� Also, DC motors should be the focus of study
for the future teams because they tend to be very compatible with the controls
and the wheelchair.�
����������� This year�s gripper design worked
fairly well, but there are several things that could be changed for improved
performance.� The first problem is that
the gripper is extremely long.� This is
not necessarily a problem in operation, but it looks awkward.� Another thing that the gripper has trouble
with is small objects.� Fixing this
problem would require a complete redesign of the fingers and palm.� Another suggestion is to somehow attach a
hooking device to open things such as drawers and cupboards.
����������� For the next academic year, the
Gateway team may want to look into controllers other than the OOPic.� Although the OOPic is very convenient to use
in some respects, it does have some shortfalls.�
First, there are other chips available now that are much faster than the
chip on the OOPic.� Most of the
controllers with these chips would need to be programmed in the assembly
programming language, which is not as desirable.� Also, the OOPic should be able to handle all
of the necessary calculations, but there are some problems in getting the OOPic
to do all of the math properly.� The
control system durability should also be improved by eliminating large
pulse-width-modulation amplitudes on lower rated motors (i.e. not using 12 volt
motor control boards with 2.4 volt motors).�
Another suggestion is to implement a control code that is able to run
the arm only when the wheelchair is turned off.