Still busy
I guess Ive let a little bit of time pass since Ive updated this. Well, the title of the last entry still fits this one. Ive been incredibly busy. Last time I updated this, I had just finished writing the proposal for the project in one of my classes, now Ive just finished the project, had it tested today. The project was to build a robotic mouse which is basically a 1 ft. by 1 ft. two wheel drive vehicle. The mouse has to follow a black oval track on the floor that may have up to two chords (technical geometry term) through it. It must cover every part of the track, including the chords, in under 2.5 minutes and detect and pick up any metal washers that are placed on the track. It also had to detect a laser and change its actions if it does. Well, we managed to get everything to work when the professor was watching it. It was really a gamble, we knew that there were some things that it wasnt good at. It was about one in three tries that would go right.
Now thats out of the way, so I have to write a proposal for my senior project. Its about the same as the mouse proposal, except that Im not working with a group this time. My senior project will be an autonomous radio controlled vehicle. Its autonomous because during normal operation it will drive around on its own and wont bump into anything. The remote controlled part comes from the two button remote that will stop and start the vehicle and set it into a high speed police mode complete with flashing lights and a siren. Im building this for Purdue, theyll keep it when Im done and use it as a recruiting tool to show off to prospective students.
Well, thats all for one class. What else have I been doing? Ive got two more ECET classes. The DSP one is going well, although a lot of it relates to stuff that we studied last semester about filters, which I dont have a great understanding of, but Im managing. The other one is keeping me quite busy. In addition the normal homework, labs, quizzes and tests in there, there is also a project. This one I get to keep. It will be a digitally controlled function generator. We have to design and build the circuitry for it, and then also write some software for a computer interface that will control the device. The majority of that should be finished up this weekend, hopefully all of it.
I havent been doing much other than that. Last week was spring break. I spent the majority of the time during that working. The mouse consumed a lot of my time during break, as did writing up the proposal for my senior project. With the little time that I had left, I was working at the place where Ill be interning this summer. Theyve got me doing a lot more than last time. I did a lot of wiring, labeling, panel layout and painting.
Ive got about 5 weeks of class left, and the senior project proposal should be done in about a week an a half, so hopefully Ill have a lot more time then. Until then, Ill just continue going crazy trying to get everything done on time.
One Response to “Still busy”
Mom - March 25th, 2005
Glad to see the update. Hope you get some time to yourself, too.
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