Dates
June - August 2017
The summer after my first year at Olin I was hired to work in the Olin Robotics Lab under Prof. David Barrett. Part of my work involved working for outside contractors on research and testing assignments, and the rest of the time was spent working on individual research.
The first contracted assignment involved designing a system to test radar and thermal detection of whales by use of whale blow (large cloud of warm vapor expelled by the whales). We did this by creating a simulated whale by fixturing a blow torch to a small tethered row boat. I designed and fabricated a sheet metal enclosure to contain the heat from the blow torch so as not to burn the boat itself. Another project involved flying quadcopters in synchronized fashion to allow our contractor to test object avoidance with their own drone.
My personal research was focused on designing electronics mount boards (physical boards for securely mounting the different electrical components inside the tube) and modular attachments using rapid prototyping techniques. This involved designing custom cap fixtures, motor mounts, and a weight redistribution system that could easily be used on different sized tubes. I also wanted to allow for flexibility in mounting directional motors for different applications, so the mounts clamped onto the tube and the actual motor attachment pieces could be interchanged. More on the modular attachments and small tube design can be found on our gitHub page on Pluto and additional info on the removable electronics tray can be found here.
