Completing thorough research is a necessary part of the engineering design process. Often, students begin building robots too early before they have really researched their design. Of course, we all want to get our hands on the parts and jump in to the building process. But patience with research will pay of in the end.
Below are some tips to use while researching.
Below are some tips to use while researching.
Document Your Research
Be sure to write down titles of videos or names of websites with URLs in your engineering notebooks to keep track of the research you have done. You will very likely need to return to a video or website at a later date, so do not waste time looking for it again! Write it down.
Use YouTube
Many experienced teams begin building their robots in the spring and begin posting video reveals in the summer months. As the season continues, more and more robots can be found on YouTube.
Some things to look for in robot reveal videos:
These are some of the questions you want to be thinking about when looking at a robot design found in a YouTube video. Often, students will take screen shots or play the video over and over to use the robot in the video as a model to copy and innovate.
Some search terms that may be useful include:
Some things to look for in robot reveal videos:
- did the robot actually score points or just drive around?
- did the robot contain all three subsystems or is it just one of the subsystems?
- how where the subsystems integrated?
- where are the motors located?
- what type of chassis, lift or object manipulator designs were used?
- what type of gear ratios were used?
- does this video show all angles of the robot, will it be useful when building?
These are some of the questions you want to be thinking about when looking at a robot design found in a YouTube video. Often, students will take screen shots or play the video over and over to use the robot in the video as a model to copy and innovate.
Some search terms that may be useful include:
- name of the game
- reveal
- robot
- team numbers (certain teams post videos every year)
- VEX
Beware of CAD Drawings
CAD drawings are useful in visualizing how the three subsystems of a robot might integrate together. However, CAD drawings are models of robots that have not actually been built and tested. This means that they may not function as intended. If you like an idea found in CAD drawing, find a video with similar subsystems to help with the build.
Below is a good CAD tutorial YouTube Channel, but just be cautious and use more videos and research to help support your design decisions.
Below is a good CAD tutorial YouTube Channel, but just be cautious and use more videos and research to help support your design decisions.