As their Mechatronics Design Symposium date approaches, 5 Mechatronics engineering students at the University of Waterloo continue to work hard on their prototype. These students are all in their 4th year and they are working towards their project: Project Centaur. The goal for it is the lowering of radiation in nuclear power plant boiler rooms. For some background, Mechatronics is a mixture of mechanical, engineering, electrical and science studies.
The University of Waterloo Mechatronics Engineering Team is composed of Eric Shi, Wesley Fisher, Adam Heins, Jesse Lopes, and Rahul Rawat. These students are extremely dedicated; they have been working tremendously hard for the past 7 months to ensure the readiness of their robot.
What’s New With The Project?
Simply put: these students are geniuses. They have been using a multitude of different programs to maximize their time and to test out all the techniques possible for the best results. For example, Eric Shi, along with his teammates have been experimenting with the Gazebo Sim Tool program where they could simulate their robot and its features. As a result of that, they can test any new features they want without actually building them first.
For the past few months:
- The team has been using the ST Robotics R12 as the arm for their robot. This design helps to measure the thickness in the pipes in the boiler rooms.
- Adam Heins has been working on a vision system for the arm to guide it.
- Jesse Lopes worked on the designs of the lift mechanism for the arm then fully integrated those designs into the robot.
- Finally, Rahut Rawal introduced the use of laser scanners which help the robot’s navigation system.
The team continues to make improvements to their prototype as they hope to have everything done by March 1st which will give them ample time to perfect their robot before their symposium on March 17th.
Stay tuned for more updates!
For more specific updates, visit the University of Waterloo Mechatronics engineering team on their blog: http://projectcentaur.com/blog/
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