Phil Batterson Final Reflection

This semester in ME 250 taught me many things about design, manufacturing, and teamwork. During the first part of the class we got a deep understanding of the design process and how to implement it. To start you think of ideas, no matter how quirky every idea is okay. Then you have to narrow down those ideas into plausible ones that can achieve what the design team thinks is the most critical thing the design should be able to do. Concept sketching ensues normally with solid models to get an idea of what the final product may look like. When this is accomplished the team starts putting the ideas into a computer aided design program to be able to get solid dimensions and parts to get ready for manufacturing. After a three dimensional model is made the individual parts are made into manufacturing sheets. These give all of the dimensions necessary to manufacture the whole part. Using the mill, the lathe, a laser cutter, water jet or any other tools in the shop the parts are made and gradually assembled the machine. Once all of the parts are made and you can start using whatever you created there is a lot of troubleshooting that has to be undertaken. Parts are hard to make exactly to specification so sometimes they do not fit the way you want them so there needs to be some tweaks made, edges sanded down, etc. Once everything is put together its time to test the design to make sure it works the way you want it to if it does not then its back to the tweaking stage of design. For example our team had everything assembled but the treads were slipping so we had to add adhesive to them, which came in the form of duct tape.

Throughout this process one huge barrier to accomplishing getting our vehicle finished was time. I know for myself I did not put aside enough time throughout the process so I would scramble towards the end of a due date to get things finished. Like pulling all nighters in order to get the entire CAD model, and the manufacturing done at the end of the semester. The design process is a large time commitment but when you have a finished product ready for the ball competition or whatever you want your final achievement to be the time investment is all worth it.

In order to better my performance in this class I think that if I had devoted more time in the beginning of the process rather than cramming it all in at once would have significantly helped me. Given that I think our team still was able to make a good robot and accomplish our strategy during the competition even though we lost in the first round to a team we could not defended against.

Overall this course was exceptional. I enjoyed most aspects of it. A few things could be improved upon though. The first is that I do not think CAD was taught in depth enough coming into this course I had four years of CAD classes so I knew how to use it well but the kids that had no background in CAD really struggled to understand some concepts. The second is that going to class should have been worth some amount of points to our grade, I know it was reflected somewhat in the exam but if attendance was 5 percent of the grade then more people would benefit from lectures which were very helpful. The final thing that could be improved is that there could be a bit more feedback from the instructors about designs and what could be done to improve a design or make the machine so it does not break during the competition.