3.5 Conclusions and Lessons Learned

Conclusion 

In conclusion, our noodle-pulling robot accomplished what we intended it to do. Combining our teamwork and time management, we were able to effectively design and build the robot to our standards. Not only did it complete its intended purpose, but we were able to alter the design and focus on aesthetics for the demo audience. Overall, the robot was a success and our team felt proud of our work! 

Lessons Learned 

We started early, took our time with this project, and learned that it really made a difference in how we felt about it coming together. We had enough time to test and iterate to make it better. Which led to us being less stressed about everything and finishing by the expected deadline we set for ourselves. We also learned to consider weight distribution since it was not something we initially designed for with the CAD and cardboard prototype. After the first assembly was done we realized how it is an issue with the different materials used and all the pieces assembled. Furthermore, our journey underscored the value of embracing diverse perspectives within our team, as differing viewpoints enriched our problem-solving process and contributed to a more cohesive team dynamic. 

Tips for Future Groups

Communicate with your group and take a lot of photos. Even if you're last-minute crunching on the project, it's so nice to look back at all the photos throughout the design process. Start the final project early. Everyone has a million things to do before finals and working on it last minute will just cause problems you won't have time to fix.

Future

For future iterations, we thought back to our initial design proposal and how we had to focus the scope of our project from the entire noodle-making process to just noodle-pulling. In the future, we would like to introduce further mechanisms and out-of-planar movement to add the twisting and unhooking process to the mechanism. As we were designing this for a culinary audience, we would like to make the electronics less visible which would involve an electronics box and possibly creating a second layer under the table to protect everything. While demoing we realized larger hooks and a taller pulling mechanism would have made for better motion.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank our professor Meredith L. Symmank and our teaching assistant Conner for all they have taught us and make progress with our project. We'd also like to acknowledge our friends who fed and bandaged us while we worked endlessly in TIW (and hurt ourselves on a vice grip). We relied so hard on the kind and hardworking TIW employees who were so willing to help us with this project, especially Suveda and Eesha!