After 8 months of hard work, presentation day has arrived! We ended up working right up to the last minute, with a major failure during final testing at around 10pm. Luckily we had enough spare parts to patch it back together and run a continual stream of shirts through!
Come by and pick up a free shirt! We have around 100 shirts crushed in bins and will be running 50 more throughout the day. We've had a great experience working on this project and everyone has learned a lot. Not only have we increased our technical skills; wiring, machining, programming and troubleshooting, but have learned a lot about dedication and team work as well. It's been an excellent year, but we're all looking forward to graduation!
Kevin
Innovare Automation is a team of 3rd Year Robotics and Automation students from Conestoga College. We are building an automated assembly line, that compresses T-Shirts into small pucks, then labels and shrink wraps them. They are then sorted automatically by color and size, and packed for shipping by the robot. This blog will offer a more personal view of the daily struggles and triumphs that each of us experience as we work towards our ultimate goal.
Tuesday, 16 August 2011
Friday, 5 August 2011
Five Days 'Till Midnight
Well, our first official demo is rapidly approaching, but lately I've got more reason for optimism than I've had since we first entered our new home at the ATS building. In the span of 5 days I've seen our assembly line transform from a well-arranged pile machinery and bad wiring, to a fully(read: mostly) automated assembly line, with the potential to turn any shirt into a well packaged puck. There's still much left to between now and our first demo, but after spending the last five days working marathon hours with some of the most tireless and determined people I've ever worked with; and seeing what we can accomplish in such a short time, I have every reason to believe we will be fully functional by then.
My goal today, is to have our last trouble station completely programmed and operational, and to post a video of our first 100% automatically crushed/packaged shirt.
Testify!
Stephan Kuwabara
My goal today, is to have our last trouble station completely programmed and operational, and to post a video of our first 100% automatically crushed/packaged shirt.
Testify!
Stephan Kuwabara
Thursday, 28 July 2011
11 Days Until Due Date
With 11 days until our project is presented, we have some outstanding issues that we are working hard to solve. These include a range of problems that were somewhat anticipated, along with some that were more of a surprise.
In particular we have had problems applying shrink wrap around the compressed shirt with our initial design. After some collaboration some of the guys have come up with a redesign that is testing well. We will do final tests today once all of the components are in their final position within the assembly.
Other outstanding issues include: positioning our 2 servo driven devices (our indexing table and packaging linear drive), acquisition of a suitable scale for determining shirt size, and the implementation of our HMI (Human Machine Interface) system. We are well on our way to taking care of these tasks, but with the amount of time left we have to move quickly.
I am happy to say that almost all of our mechanical, electrical, and pneumatic related tasks have been completed for all stations. We also have most of the programming done, but I am waiting to test the code on our work cell before I get too excited.
Shown Below are a few pictures of our current status in the build. Most components are in place, but there are a lot of finishing touches required.
In particular we have had problems applying shrink wrap around the compressed shirt with our initial design. After some collaboration some of the guys have come up with a redesign that is testing well. We will do final tests today once all of the components are in their final position within the assembly.
Other outstanding issues include: positioning our 2 servo driven devices (our indexing table and packaging linear drive), acquisition of a suitable scale for determining shirt size, and the implementation of our HMI (Human Machine Interface) system. We are well on our way to taking care of these tasks, but with the amount of time left we have to move quickly.
I am happy to say that almost all of our mechanical, electrical, and pneumatic related tasks have been completed for all stations. We also have most of the programming done, but I am waiting to test the code on our work cell before I get too excited.
Shown Below are a few pictures of our current status in the build. Most components are in place, but there are a lot of finishing touches required.
Thursday, 21 July 2011
2.5 Weeks Until Due Date
I am happy to write that our compression structure issue was solved in just 2 days, and now it's working great. Most of our mechanical systems have been completed, along with the pneumatic wiring. Mounting sensors, writing logic and implementing safety systems are the main tasks we have facing us as we head into the home stretch.
Shown below are some pictures demonstrating our progress over the last 6 weeks.
Shown below are some pictures demonstrating our progress over the last 6 weeks.
Tuesday, 12 July 2011
Build Phase Almost Complete
With exactly four weeks left until due date, we are almost finished with the bulk of the building. Most of the stations are in place and the groups have begun to wire their pneumatic systems, with some sensors in place as well. The progress has been great lately and there is a positive energy growing among the group as things are starting to come together.
We are about to take on a whole new set of challenges as we gear up to begin programming the logic for our systems sequence. Organizing our I/O, maintaining correct program structure, and sorting out the communications between our 3 PLCs will take a lot of effort, but we should be able to handle it with this group.
As I was writing this entry, we ran a test on our Hydraulic Press. Two of the welds holding the mounting plate onto the cylinder failed during cycling. We have to take the press down and have it remounted with stronger welds. Since the compression station is ahead of schedule I am confident this shouldn't be too much of a hold up.
We are about to take on a whole new set of challenges as we gear up to begin programming the logic for our systems sequence. Organizing our I/O, maintaining correct program structure, and sorting out the communications between our 3 PLCs will take a lot of effort, but we should be able to handle it with this group.
As I was writing this entry, we ran a test on our Hydraulic Press. Two of the welds holding the mounting plate onto the cylinder failed during cycling. We have to take the press down and have it remounted with stronger welds. Since the compression station is ahead of schedule I am confident this shouldn't be too much of a hold up.
Tuesday, 28 June 2011
Six Weeks Left
Welcome,
With 6 weeks left now until presentation day, things are really starting to move along. As I look around the project room I see many encouraging signs: The indexing table (the central focus of our whole project) is looking complete; the steel table we sent off for waterjet cutting is being picked up; our robot moves; hopefully we'll be able to start programming soon.
Our webpage is looking a little better too, although we won't be able to bring it online for a while yet, however this blog will fill the void nicely. I'm hoping that once I get everyone added as an author here, we can start photo documenting our progress on here. Also our team leader Jeff opened a Youtube account for us this week, so once things start moving, expect some videos. Ultimately when this blog becomes a little more functional, I'm hoping it can be the place I can direct everyone to when I'm asked "So what exactly is this third year project?".
Stephan Kuwabara
With 6 weeks left now until presentation day, things are really starting to move along. As I look around the project room I see many encouraging signs: The indexing table (the central focus of our whole project) is looking complete; the steel table we sent off for waterjet cutting is being picked up; our robot moves; hopefully we'll be able to start programming soon.
Our webpage is looking a little better too, although we won't be able to bring it online for a while yet, however this blog will fill the void nicely. I'm hoping that once I get everyone added as an author here, we can start photo documenting our progress on here. Also our team leader Jeff opened a Youtube account for us this week, so once things start moving, expect some videos. Ultimately when this blog becomes a little more functional, I'm hoping it can be the place I can direct everyone to when I'm asked "So what exactly is this third year project?".
Stephan Kuwabara
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