My Motor: Design Concepts/Findings

When I first started building my motor, I had a clear idea of what to make it look like. There weren't many design concepts I was considering because I had one clear in my mind. I knew what it was going to look like but I just had to make it work. 

While making this motor, I found techniques of doing things which made it easier. I also found that certain things made the motor better than others. When I was first making the field magnet, I just coiled the wire around and around but it was not very neat. Then, when I tried to put it on the base, it would not go on and work. I found out that I just had to take some of the wire off and make it neater to make it work and fit on the base. 

The electromagnet was challenging to make but I discovered ways to make it easier along the way. I managed to put nuts on the ends of the nails to make sure that when I wrapped the coil around them, they wouldn't stick together. If they stuck together, I wouldn't have been able to put the axle in between the two nails. I also realized that you had to wrap the coil around extremely tightly in order for the coils to be wrapped neatly together. I also had to twist the ends of the brushes in order to make them touch the copper better. 

My Motor: Challenges

There were a lot of challenges involved in making this motor. The first challenge I encountered was getting all of the right materials. Since the materials were very specific, I really had to look everywhere and ask a lot. Even finding things on the internet was hard because I did not know for sure if it was the right type of wire needed for this motor. 

Making the base for this motor was a pretty simple task, but I had to make sure I measured everything correctly for the motor to fit. Once I got the base done, I had to make the electromagnet and the field magnet. The only challenging part of the field magnet was wrapping the wire around because it was so hard to bend. But eventually I got it done and the magnet worked. The really hard part was making the electromagnet. It was challenging to wrap the magnet wire around. First of all, it required a lot of patience, which I don't really have. Also, you had to wrap the wire around extremely carefully and really tightly to make sure it works correctly. This process was really long and challenging but I got it to work. 

Another challenging part was making the brushes. They were extremely hard to keep in place because they were really flimsy and kept on moving around. You also really had to line them up with the copper well so that they touched at all times. 

Overall, this motor was pretty challenging to build although the concept itself was not. The parts of this motor were really small to work with, which just added to the challenge. However, none of these challenges really set me back, I just had to work through them. 

Electric Motors

An electric motor is a machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Therefore, it turns electricity into movement. 

Electric motors are used for various different things. Fans, blowers and pumps, machine tools, household appliances, power tools, disk drives and many other things all use electric motors. 

Electric motors can operate on direct current (DC) sources or alternating current (AC) sources. DC sources include batteries and motor vehicles. AC sources come from power grids, inverters, or generators. 

Motors have been around since the 1700s. The first DC electric motor capable of turning machinery was invented by William Sturgeon, a British scientist in 1832. After that, more complex motors began being built by many different men, each with more power. Electric motors revolutionized industries and made things a lot easier. They became extremely popular. 

There are many different parts to a motor. 

1. First there is the rotor. The rotor is the moving part of a motor that turns the shaft, which delivers mechanical power. 
2. A power supply, such as a battery, supplies the electrical energy for the motor. The motor then is able to convert this energy into mechanical energy. 
3. The field magnet is a magnet created by wrapping coils around metal. When these coils are attached to the power supply, they create a field magnet which has stationary poles. These poles will attract to the electromagnet and make the motor spin. The field magnet is stationary and does not move in most motors. 
4. A commutator is used to switch the input of machines. There are stationary brushes in constant contact with the spinning commutator. This causes current reversals which keep the motor spinning. 

Motors are extremely important to our modern day world but often go unnoticed. They make everyday machines function. 

My Bridge

Building a bridge has been an extremely difficult task so far. Even getting the materials to get started was hard because I had to get the exact dimensions for the wood. There is also a lot of thing to take into consideration when building a bridge. I have to make sure it stays under the weight limit, but also that it can hold 120 pounds. I have to make sure my bridge stays in static equilibrium so that it does not collapse under the weight and pressure. 

In order to make my bridge the best that it can be, I am going to build several different types of bridges including a truss bridge and an arch bridge. I am going to try to build a bridge with a warren truss because it has a special way of distributing the force. Where the force and pressure of the load is put is extremely important when building a bridge. Otherwise, if it goes to the wrong place, the bridge will completely collapse. 

The problem with building an arched bridge is that you have to heat the wood up a little bit. Also, once the wood dries, it stays in that shape. 

In our group, we have decided to split up and work on different types of bridges. Then we will regroup and see what works best. We are also giving each other tips on how to build the bridge along the way. 

Building a bridge is a tough, time consuming project. However, I will try my best and hopefully it will be able to withstand 120 pounds using the techniques I am researching. 

Static Equilibrium

When all the forces that act upon an object are balanced, then the object is said to be in a state of equilibrium. Even though these forces are balanced, it does not mean that they are equal. Objects in equilibrium have a net force and acceleration of zero. This comes from Newton's First Law of Motion. 

Even though the object has an acceleration of zero, it does not mean that it is at rest. It can also mean that the object is in motion and continuing in motion with the same speed and direction. 

However, when an object is at rest and is in equilibrium, it is said to be in "static equilibrium". Static means stationary or at rest. 

A bridge is an example of a system in static equilibrium. The bridge undergoes no motion. Static equilibrium is an important concept when building a bridge whether it is small or huge. It is important because these structures need to maintain static equilibrium under all expected loading conditions. A bridge reaches static equilibrium when the weight on top is equal to the resistance on the bottom of the bridge. If the bridge was not in static equilibrium, then it would not be able to hold all the weight it was supposed to, and it would collapse. 

Bridges

A bridge is a structure built to span obstacles such as bodies of water, valleys, or roads to provide passages over the obstacle. There are many different designs of bridges that serve unique purposes and apply to different situations. Designs of bridges differ depending on the function of the bridge, the nature of the terrain, the material used to make it, and the funds available to build it.

The first bridges were made by nature itself. These "bridges" were often trees fallen over that provided a passage across a stream or small river. The greatest bridge builders were the Ancient Romans. They built arch bridges and aqueducts that withstood extreme conditions. Many other civilizations caught on and began to build different types of bridges.

Types of Bridges:

Beam Bridge: horizontal beams that are supported at each end by substructure units. The earliest beam bridges were just simply logs across rivers and other similar simple things. Beam Bridges are the most common bridge type in use today. 

Truss Bridge: A bridge whose load-bearing superstructure is composed of a truss. This truss is formed by triangles. Truss bridges are one of the oldest types of modern bridges. A truss bridge is economical to construct owing to its efficient use of materials.

Cantilever Bridge: They are built using cantilevers-horizontal beams supported only on one side. They are constructed using much of the same materials and techniques as a beam bridge; however, there is a difference in where the forces act. 

Arch Bridge: Arch bridges look slightly like beam bridges; however, they have abutments at each end in which the weight of the bridge is thrust into. Abutments are substructures at the ends of bridges where the bridge's superstructure rests. 

Tied Arch Bridge: They have an arch-shaped superstructure but the ends of the arches are restrained by tension in the bottom of the structure. They are also called bowstring arches. 

Suspension Bridge: They are suspended by cables. In modern suspension bridges, the cables hang from towers that are attached to caissons or cofferdams. 

Cable-stayed Bridge: They are also held by cables. However, there is less cable required to build these and they also tend to be higher. 

Most bridges are fixed bridges, but you can also find movable bridges that having moving parts to it. There are also double decked bridges with two levels to support more traffic. These tend to be in busier areas such as large cities. 

Programming

Robot software refers to the coded commands that tell a mechanical device, such as a robot, what tasks to perform. Programming is not extremely hard once you learn how to do it because there are many softwares designed specifically to make programming easier and faster. Robot software can be extremely simple or extremely complicated. Some robots, like the ones we built, are programmed to just pick things up and move around. However, there are some robots that are programmed to act exactly like humans and speak like them. Most robots are programmed to do repetitive jobs or dangerous jobs that humans do not want to do. Most of these jobs are in factories and include building cars, candy bars, and electronics. Some robots are even programmed to explore underwater or even other planets!

Data flow programming is used by most robot manufacturers. It is based on the concept that when the value of a variable changes, the values of other variables affected should also change. The programming language that includes data flow is called data flow language. Data flow languages include functional concepts as well as numeric processing. Data flow language is modeled as a sequence of functions unlike other programming languages that use imperative programming.

Run-time is an important concept in programming robots. Run-time is when a program is running or executing. It is also used as a short form when referring to a run-time library. A run time library is a library of code instructions used by a computer language to manage a program in that language. Run-time is also used by some people to specify when problems in a program occur. A run time error is an error that happens in the program while it is executing, or running. For example, if the arm of your robot turned left instead of right, this would be a run time error.

When using a robot, you have to know how to program it. Otherwise, the robot will be able to do nothing and it will be useless. You can program robots do anything from hardly anything at all to making cars and roaming around on different planets that we cannot set foot on.