Spring 2023
Though not much survived of this project, I was tasked with creating a balance beam that could sense the position of a ping pong ball and center it along a balance beam by receiving information to move one of the “legs'“ via Arduino. I manufactured the structure of this project, programed the Arduino, installed all of the components, and designed my own circuit board from scratch. (For reference, we were able to receive extra credit if we decorated our projects, hence my decor). This project was meant to teach students design methodology, statics, mechanics of materials, and machining.
Balance beam in box before sensor and circuit board instalation
Screenshot of the presentation of the project
In working on this project throughout the semester, I practiced my CAD on Solidworks to design the balance beam, prototyped with cardboard, worked with a Laser Cutter to gain familiarity, read drawings to create piece using Mill, used sheet metal to create brackets by forming it with bends and sawing cuts, as well as learned how to use blind rivets, participated in PCB design to then have circuit board manufactured and implemented, coded an Arduino microcontroller and set up a basic three state logic controller through potentiometers, assembled PCB and soldered the pieces together, and tuned a PID controller.
In the end, the pingpong ball was able to be balanced perfectly! Overlooking the aesthetic aspect of this project, I could modify certain lengths and parameters of my project to optimize its performance even more.