Projects
Robotics
We propose to design, organize, and host a robotics competition open to all students in our community, including both university and high school. We will design a template for a robot that can be easily assembled and understood in less than 4 hours and then provide teams with the materials and design suggestions that will allow them to compete for the title of fastest and strongest robot.
The IEEE officers are enthusiastic about opening robotics research to all students in a creative and feasible way. At our officer meetings and at numerous subcommittee meetings, we have wrestled with ideas and techniques for involving all students in this program. Thus our goal is naturally to make the robotics program very approachable for all students without specific expertise, and to provide many of the tools and ideas for convenience. To these ends we have looked extensively into the procedures involved in designing and constructing simple robots using methods that have been developed and tested by Professor Fearing. As a first step, we took a closer look at Professor Fearing's research ourselves to examine the ideas and processes that students would be involved in. Professor Fearing has an excellent paper on the specific robot design that seems particularly relevant, which is included in the Bibliography. Many of our ideas have been influenced by Professor Fearing's work on the micro-mechanical insect project. Some of Fearing's other papers also clearly demonstrate the proven feasibility of the design techniques that we would like to involve students in. After perusing the literature, we have decided that we want to get students involved in designing and building their own simple robots, and model the process as a competition to spark interests. After many lengthy discussions with Professor Fearing about different simple robot designs that he has worked on, we have decided on the design based on the Sarrus Link as a good candidate for students to work with. An alternate mechanical design based on the even simpler four-bar paradigm is another excellent candidate. Our goal is to provide students with designs that are both easy to comprehend and yet still powerful. To test out the designing process ourselves, we conducted sub committee meetings in which we ran trials in Solidworks, the design program that we hope to provide the students with as recommended by Professor Fearing. After many sessions with Solidworks and looking at Professor Fearing's designs in detail, we have learned a great deal about the process of designing the robots.
The officers of our student branch are convinced that the robotics program will be an essential part of outreach to students, from EECS through high school students. This semester we have relocated our lab to a new room, and we are in need of even more exciting programs , such as this, to draw students into our lab. Beyond our club's internal interests, we also have the desire to involve students in an exciting and challenging research experience. We realize that many of the students in EECS, especially those who have not gained specific skills and expertise, do not have an easy time coming into contact with cutting edge research like this, nor do they have an easy time working with faculty like Professor Fearing. We are confident that our robotics project will provide a more open research experience for EECS students who want to participate and compete. Further, students in the humanities have even less opportunities to learn about robotics. We hope that by creating a user friendly, intuitively-designed robot template, all students will be able to compete. Thus we plan to invite neighboring high schools from Oakland and Berkeley to also join the project. The robotics program will provide invaluable learning experiences due to its challenging and hands-on nature. It will not be as easy or dull as learning a few abstract concepts, for it involves active creative thinking and real world problem solving. Our job as IEEE officers will be to lay the foundation for the competition, providing the computers, software, materials, and design ideas to supply a great opportunity. The students will run with the idea and, Professor Fearing envisions, will come up with new and fascinating ideas of their own. Professor Fearing views the project as a means to cultivate new creative ideas in robotics research that can be applied to solve real problems in his field. We plan the competition to revolve around the specific problem of robotic movement and manipulation, which the EECS department has expressed considerable interest in. Surely the IEEE members and EECS students, humanities majors and high school students will recognize the great usefulness and practicality here.
We expect the robotics program to be an important project for our new lab. We plan on devoting a significant amount of time to organizing materials for the project. These materials include project literature for the students to study, lab computers and software for the design process, and materials for the construction process. We were quite surprised by the straightforward concepts involved and the almost entirely integrated procedure after Professor Fearing described it to us. After designs are completed on the computer using Solidworks, students can directly make cutouts of their designs on cardboard material using a laser cutter. The laser cutter reads files created by Solidworks in order to cut the actual pieces needed to assemble the model. We hope to simplify the procedure enough for students so that a lot can be accomplished in a small amount of time. Our core of officers will provide a good foundation for the students to insulate them from unnecessary complications and difficulties. We have not finalized the format of the competition itself, but we certainly expect the program to be contained within a single semester. Besides providing an exciting opportunity for students to get involved in robotics and research, we expect the project to positively influence activity in our lab. The possibility the project could attract students, members, and potential new members to our lab cannot be overlooked as a major accomplishment for our student branch. This great possibility comes at a time when we are experiencing dips in membership and are eagerly looking for ideas to stimulate students and establish an inviting presence on campus. Furthermore, the potential of this project to bolster membership provides grounds for other projects and programs in the future
The project will not only benefit our IEEE student branch, all electrical engineers at Berkeley, and other students at Berkeley, but also our local community. Having the ability to host a robotics competition would be a boon to our student branch for it would allow us to provide an exciting opportunity for our members to compete in and learn from. And because the event would be located in the EE Department, we expect high turnout as no travel or special accommodations are necessary for a student to compete. The contest would also provide a tangible motivation to bring students back into our IEEE lab and give them the opportunity to do hands on electrical engineering instead of the usual simulations.
Because of our student branch's experience with running the weekly hands-on engineering classes, we feel that we have the skills to turn the early research behind this robotics competition into tangible results. The weekly electronics lessons we organize for both UC Berkeley and high school students have taught us how to involve all students in IEEE activities, ranging from electrical engineers to German majors, math to Scandinavian studies, high school sophomores to college seniors .We have asked our base of students if they would be interested in this competition and the answer has been a resounding yes. Thus we know we have the interest and the capability to organize this event from many diverse student groups. We also have a devoted IEEE officer whose sole duty is to ensure this projects proceeds well. He is supported by a committee of other IEEE officers who also work to ensure that all logistical and resource management issues are dealt with in both a timely and professional manner. The cost of the competition is a fixed amount that cannot vary with time so we are sure that our funding request will adequately meet our needs.
This project has the opportunity to become a linchpin of the Berkeley academic community. Currently there is no one event or contest that brings all electrical engineers together and certainly not one that welcomes non-engineers and high school students. Our goal is for this competition to become a unifying force where students who would not usually meet are presented with new channels of communication. Professor Fearing of the EECS department is working closely with us. This project would also serve to benefit students professionally as it will provide them with an opportunity for hands on electrical engineering experiences. While Berkeley offers many outstanding classes in the field, many are theoretical and students stand to gain from such tangible projects as this robotics competition. It would also give our student branch much more visibility and credibility, furthering our membership efforts. We also hope to have an industry speaker present one of the days of the competition to introduce the event and impart some words on where projects like this can lead and how one can begin a career in robotics. This way, even though the competition will end, the skills learned from it will hopefully serve as the springboard to future endeavors. Many Berkeley graduate students go on to work in robotics so we feel it will not be difficult to obtain such a speaker.
