During my employment at Robotic Research, I worked on two main projects.

(1) Drone Propellor Testing Environment

(2) Device for Automated Control of Trailer Brake

This project tested my knowledge in a large variety of fields. Assembling all the electrical components of this project prompted me to learn how to read data sheets, how to troubleshoot electrical issues, and calibrate sensors for accuracy. I also learned how to draw electrical diagrams and began the process of transferring the diagram into Altium for custom PCB design in the future.

To facilitate user experience and cleanliness of the entire product, I worked on the design for an enclosure of the entire product. The enclosure had to consider constant changes with equipment that would be attached to the boards, as well as cooling of the circuit board when running long tests. This required 3D modeling skills and knowledge much of which was done on Autodesk Inventor for this project.

Overall, I had a lot of fun working on this project. I learned a significant amount about electronics and electrical engineering in general. It also was my first project that I had to design for other people to use in the long term, which required a lot of design thinking to successfully pass this project to someone completely new.

Description

Robotic Research has been working on developing automated commercial trailers for delivery and pickup for commercial companies. This process consists of a smart vehicle with an automated attachment system to large trailers for fast and easy delivery of goods. My project addresses the need to connect the smart vehicles’ air pressure system to the trailer in order to control the trailer’s braking system. The air delivery system is connected through Gladhands. To connect two gladhands at least 3 degrees of movement is needed, making the motion almost impossible to do by robotic arm, which is currently the only solution. To combat this problem, I instead developed a mobile solar power air compressor that will be permanently attached to the trailer. The device will then connect wirelessly to the smart vehicle so that the braking system of the trailer can be controlled remotely.

The development of this product took about 9 months, where I was working part-time and remotely from Charlottesville.

Description:

When transporting cargo for groceries, shipment facilities, etc. there are two systems involved. One is the trailer. This is the "shipment container” which will carry the cargo needed. The second is the “vehicle” which is the “remote control” for the trailer. It has a pin system that will connect to the trailer and move the cargo around. Currently, a huge bottleneck is connecting the air system from the vehicle to the trailer for controlling the brakes. The air system is connected from the vehicle to the trailer through gladhands. A connection that requires dexterity and strength the connect. The current solution is to use a robotic hand to extend, position, and twist the gladhands in place. This method has proved to be inefficient, expensive, and over-engineered. My solution is to create a device with a built-in air compressor that can be controlled remotely by the vehicle.

This device had to meet a number of standards. As a one-time installation for this device, it has to be weather resistant, self-charging, light, and easy to install. It also must be able to read pressure settings and consistently feed information back and forth.

Description

This testing stand consisted of two voltmeters, two ammeters, two ESC controllers, one tachometer, one load cell, and two Arduinos.

Various brushless motors and ESCs could be attached to the system and would be powered by an external power supply. Thrust, power input, direction, and current supplied could all be adjusted through a customized GUI.

After a test is run, a compiled Excel spreadsheet would be exported to the computer with all organized data from the test stand.

This test stand would go on to be used as the main data collection instrument for decision-making on various brushless motors and ESCs even after my leave at the company. This was a 3 month long project.