Project

# Title Team Members TA Documents Sponsor
26 ROBOTIC WAITER FOR RESTAURANTS
 Cheng Jin
Jun Pun Wong
Kausik Venkat
 Xinrui Zhu design_document0.pdf
design_document0.pdf
final_paper0.pdf
other0.zip
other0.zip
other0.zip
other0.zip
presentation0.pdf
proposal0.pdf
We want to build a robot that can handle orders & deliver food in restaurants. Patrons would have a alert mechanism (button) to call the waiter (our robot). Our kitchen would have internal transmission network (between robot, kitchen and tables) that would receive this request and then the robot would be dispatched to assist the customer. Patrons would also be able to place orders using the robot (LED screen). The restaurant staff would also be notified of the various orders which they would dispatch through the robot later on.

For the navigation, we have talked to a TA and the machine shop for advice. The TA suggested for this one-semester project, we could use fixed locations for our tables and map that to the micro-controller on the robot to program it on where to go. Greg from the machine shop also helped us suggest what wheels, motors could be used to build the robot. Currently, we are looking at a 4 wheel with 2 wheels that are driving the movement and 2 that are just following (they help support the load on the robot). We also talked with Greg on how to get the distance moved by the robot. He recommended that we can calculate the distance moved using data from the encoders that are attached to the wheels of our robot.

Control System and User Interface for Hydraulic Bike

Iain Brearton

Featured Project

Parker-Hannifin, a fluid power systems company, hosts an annual competition for the design of a chainless bicycle. A MechSE senior design team of mechanical engineers have created a hydraulic circuit with electromechanical valves, but need a control system, user interface, and electrical power for their system. The user would be able to choose between several operating modes (fluid paths), listed at the end.

My solution to this problem is a custom-designed control system and user interface. Based on sensor feedback and user inputs, the system would change operating modes (fluid paths). Additionally, the system could be improved to suggest the best operating mode by implementing a PI or PID controller. The system would not change modes without user interaction due to safety - previous years' bicycles have gone faster than 20mph.

Previous approaches to this problem have usually not included an electrical engineer. As a result, several teams have historically used commercially-available systems such as Parker's IQAN system (link below) or discrete logic due to a lack of technical knowledge (link below). Apart from these two examples, very little public documentation exists on the electrical control systems used by previous competitors, but I believe that designing a control system and user interface from scratch will be a unique and new approach to controlling the hydraulic system.

I am aiming for a 1-person team as there are 6 MechSE counterparts. I emailed Professor Carney on 10/3/14 and he thought the general concept was acceptable.

Operating modes, simplified:

Direct drive (rider's pedaling power goes directly to hydraulic motor)

Coasting (no power input, motor input and output "shorted")

Charge accumulators (store energy in expanding rubber balloons)

Discharge accumulators (use stored energy to supply power to motor)

Regenerative braking (use motor energy to charge accumulators)

Download Competition Specs: https://uofi.box.com/shared/static/gst4s78tcdmfnwpjmf9hkvuzlu8jf771.pdf

Team using IQAN system (top right corner): https://engineering.purdue.edu/ABE/InfoFor/CurrentStudents/SeniorProjects/2012/GeskeLamneckSparenbergEtAl

Team using discrete logic (page 19): http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/86206/ME450?sequence=1