Working Toward My Iron Roots

As I continue to design my mechanism, I have decided that having a "shell," so to speak, to encase the mechanism would make it both more legitimate as a robotic arm, and make it more worth wearing.

During the week I have been searching online for ways of building a "shell" for my arm that would be form fitting and mobile. While searching I found a website made by David J. Guyton who sells "easy" make designs for different gauntlets. This is exactly what I have been looking for, so I plan to build this shell, most likely over winter break.

Building the "shell" I feel should be done as fast as possible because it has a specific design, and it would be easier to fit the mechanism to the case, then the case to the mechanism.

I haven't decided which design to use for my project yet, so it could be either of the two designs seen in the pictures.

*The photos were taken as screenshots during two YouTube videos by David Guyton. Here is the link to his website if you're curious. http://www.davidjguyton.com/gauntlettemplate.htm

Confirmed Mentor

The other day I received a confirmation from the person, my brother, who I asked to be my Mentor. I now have a Mentor for my project, however, since he currently is in college, he cannot help in person very often, and has small windows of time when I will be able to discuss with him the design and wiring of the project, as well as problem solving and physically helping me with the building process, maybe. Because he is sparse on time, in his confirmation letter, he gave me tips for working on the project when he doesn’t have time to talk as well as how to schedule times for us to discuss the project. He told me that I should be flexible if something goes wrong with the project early, and that I should have multiple designs to try, to find the one that works the best and is easiest to build, to minimize malfunctions. As well he told me to focus on my timeline, so that I can be as organized as possible.

Found A Mentor

For the last few weeks I have been looking for a mentor for my project. The mentor was hopefully going to be someone who is more experienced, in the fields that my project covers, than I am. This would allow my project to progress to a new level because my limitations would not be the limitations of the project, and I would be able to do and learn much more throughout the year. In my search I believe that I found the best candidate for my mentor. My brother I feel would be the most helpful person I could have for my mentor. Partially because he is my brother and therefore much more accessible, and I am much more open in conversation with him. Another reason is that my brother is an engineer who builds robots, and he has taught kids how to build robots. This I feel would be very beneficial to me because he would be able to help me design and build my robotic parts because it is what he does, and because he already has experience in teaching/helping kids problem solve.

Finding A Mentor

For our project, one of the things we are supposed to do is find a mentor. Our mentor is supposed to be able to help us answer questions about our project and help us problem solve the issues that come up during the year. My project involves the designing, building, and wiring of a robotic arm. For this reason I would hopefully get a mentor that understands engineering enough to be able to help me with mainly the design process and the wiring process, but not the building process as much because Tech Shop, the place I intend to build it at, has many people willing to help with my project. As well as someone who knows a lot about engineering, it would also be helpful if that person was very knowledgeable about human biology. This is because, since my project is a mechanism that is supposed to imitate the motions of a human arm, and mine specifically, it would be helpful to have someone who is knowledgeable about the motions of a human arm, and why it moves in the way it does.