Erica Umlor

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About Me

Hello, I am Erica Umlor. I am currently pursuing a Computer Engineering Bachelor Degree and a Psychology minor. I am finishing half way through my third year at Michigan Tech.

Interests

  • Electronics
  • Programming
  • Robotics
  • Sports

Experience

  • The Enterprise program has been my only experience with programming and hardware for electronics.

Enterprise

Semester 1 Spring 2018


GM Robot Arm Automation:

    This semester I worked with Zach and Dan on the GM Robotic Arm project. The arm's purpose is to remove a 3D from the bed so a new print can begin. This would make the process possible without being in the lab at all. Using Octoprint, we can start the print from anywhere with internet, and with the arm, we can clear the bed. When I joined this semester, the arm was mostly assembled, so I do not know much about the specific mechanics of it, but I did most of the programming for the arm. I wrote some step by step code in DDE in JavaScript. They are small line commands that tell the arm to move to specific places. There is a large cage that we have assembled. It has a 3D printer and robotic arm inside. It also has some cool LED strip lights that light it up. As of right now, there are several limitations with the arm. We have to push a button on the laptop to start the robotic arm once the print is finished. Also, the code for the arm only works for one specific print. I learned a lot about how the arm works and hope to continue working on it next semester so it can be used to its full potential. Next semester the plan is to try and make the arm and the 3D printer talk to each other. When the print is finished, it will somehow signal the arm to begin the motions to remove the print from the bed. This way we don't have to push the button on the laptop. We also want to eliminate the need for the laptop. We have a raspberry pi that can start the print outside of the cage, and we think it will be possible to use DDE on it. The next step to improving the project will be to add some sort of feedback on the gripper. There was some issues with the first servo that we used for the gripper. The conclusion was that we pushed the limits too hard and stripped the gears inside. If we have feedback from how hard the gripper is squeezing, we can eliminate that issue. I am glad that I got to gain experience working on this project this semester. 

Semester 2 Fall 2018


GM Robot Arm Automation:

    This semester I was in charge of the team working on this project. Haddington notified us that they designed a new DEXTER arm that is more compact and easier to build. They put us on the list for a swap out. 

Weeks 1-4:

    The first few weeks of the semester I introduced the arm to the new members of my team. After a few weeks we met up and tried to calibrate the arm again. The results of our calibration are in the PDF below. The calibration was unsuccessful and we emailed Haddington for some help. It is now the end of the semester and we have no response to our results. The calibration of the encoders is not needed, but it would be useful if the arm knew where it was when we started it up every time. Instead we have to accurately start the arm in the correct position before we turn it on. 
DEXTER Calibration .pdf

Weeks 5-9:

    We set up a video chat with Haddington and talked about there progress over the summer while we were all gone. They didn't make a lot of progress on the wireless communication between the arm and the 3D printer. They told us they designed a new gripper that has built in feedback so we don't have to worry about it squeezing too hard. We figured out how to use an Xbox controller and the laptop to control the arm. It lets you move the arm and then pull coordinates from wherever the arm is currently at. We haven't figured out how to control the gripper with it yet.

Weeks 10-14:

    We continued to figure out how to use the Xbox controller to move the arm. We were using the teach me code built in for the controller and are going to write our own so we can move the gripper too. The new gripper was on Thingiverse so we 3D printed those parts and then ordered the motors and bearings. We built the new gripper and then realized we needed to order another bearing. We didn't get it until the last week of the semester so that will be finished next semester. Some pictures of the new gripper are below. 
Gripper1.PNG
Gripper2.PNG
Gripper3.PNG

Goals for next semester

    We want to get the new gripper completely assembled and installed onto the arm. We also want to get the new upgrade for the removable print bed for the Prusa. We can then program another demo for removing any type of print by using the arm to pull of the print bed and bend it so the print falls off.
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