Conor Alt Assignment

Cheddar:

I chose a floating tsunami shelter as the first innovation. I chose this innovation because I believe that this is a worthwhile investment and it can save thousands of lives in all areas of the world. It provided shelter to those impacted by a tsunami. It floats on water and can hold up to twenty people. It allows people to be reliably safe when disaster strikes and help them get out of the situation alive. Too many people are dying to tsunamis, so the company decided to help.

My second innovation that I chose was the Bolawrap. I chose to write about the Bolawrap because it can change the way policemen do their jobs for the better. Too many people have been killed or injured by the police when they are being arrested and the Bolowrap fixes that. It shoots a line that quickly ties up the suspect and makes escape impossible. This could save tons of money and save lives. The people who designed this needed to make sure that the wrap would actually work and stay on the suspect.

The final innovation that I chose was glasses that help cure motion sickness. The glasses have a liquid inside of them that gives the wearer a virtual horizon, so their brain always knows what direction up is. This can help with car sickness or sea sickness and help the user feel better in these environments. This product can help the millions of people who experience motion sickness on a daily basis.

Interesting Engineering:

The topic i chose was a collection of Lego builds that involved many feats of engineering such as a forklift that can move up or down. It did not solve any specific problem in the world, but it was full of interesting quirks that made it a cool project. They had a variety of vehicles such as a motorcycle or a forklift. These machines are remote controlled and have engines all built by Legos. The vehicles such as the motorcycle can balance themselves and you can buy all of them in working condition online.

My second invention that i chose was a tent capable of keeping you alive in the extreme cold. I chose to write about the tent because it can change the way campers live in the snow for the better. Too many people have died or suffered injuries by hypothermia or frostbite and the tent can fix that. The tent is self warming and adapts to your needs. It can be in negative temperatures and still keep you warm The people who designed this needed to make sure that the tent would actually provide heat to the user and keep them alive.

The third interesting engineering challenge that I chose was a robot that delivers food to people on college campus’, offices, or homes. This invention is similar to doordash, but it doesn’t require someone to drive to the store to buy food. The process is done automatically. This will make it easier for anyone to get food because they won’t have to worry about driving to the store or dealing with traffic. The robot will help our lives by making them a little bit easier. The engineers had to overcome a lot of challenges such as not running into things, obeying traffic laws, and getting to the right destination.

Robotics business review:

I am writing about the article 10 Most Memorable Robots of 2017. A majority of the robots featured on the list are Boston Dynamics’ robots that can do a wide variety of human feats such as backflips or opening doors. MIT created a robot purely controlled by thoughts. The machine reads your brainwaves and send information to a robot, moving it. Google created a self driving car that drove for 100 miles without crashing. An android was created that can show human emotions and have a conversation with a person.

DC motors and capacitors:

Capacitors store a bit of energy, and release the energy at a known rate. There are a couple of reasons capacitors are used in parallel with motors. They reduce noise from intermittent contact of brushes in the motor that  may use the wires connected to the motors as antennas to broadcast noise interfering with nearby radio receivers.They can smooth out current spikes caused when a motor starts up or gets stuck, preventing spikes/dips from affecting other components in the circuit. They smooth out  current spikes caused when controlling a motor speed using digitally-controlled PWM signal. In PWM, the power to the motor is pulsed on and off by a controller rather than varied smoothly using a variable resistor. If a PWM signal is on half of the time, the motor receives half of the power, and the motor behaves accordingly. Since this pulsing can cause noise,  it's common to use capacitors to smooth out the current.