7 - Conclusion and Future Work

Conclusion/Reflection

In the end, our project accomplished what it set out to do. It was able to dip an Oreo cookie into milk and return it to a serving position with minimal reliance on software. Indeed, we were able to implement a planar mechanism with a mechanical grabber and a mechanical intermittent motion system to dip a cookie into milk. However, the mechanism certainly didn't come together without issues, outlined in the implementation section. It is also not complete according to our original vision.

Future Work

Despite it being successful, the project is certainly not a complete product, and much more could be added to make the mechanism a more complete package. A few things that we would like to add are discussed below.

• Adding an automatic cookie feeder. Right now, you have to load the cookie manually into the grabber which doesn't keep your hands clean.
• Adding a cookie unloader. Right now, you also have to take the cookie out manually.
• Get double dipping intentionally. We currently get double dipping (sometimes) due to the inertia of the input gear. We would like to see if there's a way to do this on purpose, whether it's a mechanical solution or a software solution.
• Decrease the speed. The mechanism is currently aggressive. We would like to decrease the speed with a low-speed/high torque motor, different gear ratio, or some other solution. This will alleviate the splashing issue we currently have.
• Increase mechanism robustness. 3mm acrylic is flimsy and leads to questions of longevity. 

Important Lessons Learned

• When doing press fits, calibrating the machine and material is critical for proper tolerances.
• Try to avoid lots of tolerance stacking up in design.
• When something fails, be calm. Drive to the root cause of failure instead of trying to implement band-aid fixes.
• Make sure CAD assemblies are fully defined to avoid interference in the physical build.
• Plan for issues/delays in the build.
• Try to have fun when building. It's less stressful that way.

Tips for Future Groups

1. Ask questions often. The teaching team is extremely knowledgeable and can help you clear a roadblock and guide you in the right direction.
2. Use laser cutters for planar geometry instead of 3D printing. It speeds up your build substantially. 
3. Prototype everything to check if your idea works before committing to it.
4. Don't procrastinate. This project is a lot, and even for simple projects, doing work upfront can minimize long nights at TIW.
5. Pick a project you are interested in. It won't be fun if you build something you do not care about.

Acknowledgments

Finally, Team 10 would like to give our thanks to all who have helped us achieve our goals for the semester. First, we'd like to thank Dr. Symmank and TA Aayush Parikh for teaching us the basics of mechanism design and analysis in the lecture. This project would not have been possible without those tools. We would also like to give a big shoutout to TA Connor Hennig for all of his advice throughout the project stage. Your mechanical knowledge and tips made this project a success. Lastly, Team 10 would like to thank all the staff at Texas Inventionworks for providing a space and the tools required to build our project.