Introduction

EE 400D is a very fast pace class in which students are expected to learn new material on their own to succeed with their group project. At first, everything may become stressful with all the new information given to you about how the class structure is set up. Hopefully, you were instructed to look at previous student blog posts to get an understanding of what is expected of you. It is important you take the researching phase of the semester seriously. The success of your project is highly dependent on you and your team in understanding how to setup your semester schedule base on the work you need to do.

This blog post covers all the struggles my team and I had throughout the semester and provide advice on how to prevent your team from encountering issues with your own project. I urge the reader to look at other groups “lessons learned” blog post as some problems students encounter are not robot dependent and some may have other solutions/strategies on how they solved them or prevent them.

Hardships that faced the Micro FOBO group

Our group was small. Since the start of the semester, it became evident that our class had fewer students than other semesters. For this reason, our class had only two group projects each of which had three students working on them. With only three members on the team, the PM had to do the Design and Manufactures job which doubled the workload.
We struggled to find the right project to work on. I suggest choosing something that you are passionate about. It wasn’t until I designed the Micro FOBO to emulate 1950s tin toys that I got passionate about the project. What I’m trying to say is that you need to make the project related to you and your teammates add some personal touches. Only then you will find yourself doing work on the project without thinking of it as work
3DoT Board was never given to use to use. Professor Hill worked hard on version 6 of the board but unfortunately, the board encountered problems that delayed the manufacturing of the board.

Things I wish I did not do

Spend to much time on the PCB board that did not work
Start team meetings without having an agenda/plan made beforehand
Do not spend all semester without a single visit you the customer’s office hours. I recommend updating the customer on your project at least twice a month.
Do not miss any days of class and try to be on time. Pop quizzes often occur the days you are absent

Things I wish I did do

Talked to my teammates about their individual roles and make sure they know what tasks they are responsible for.
Set strict timelines for the group
Read the class lectures a week in advance and ask questions about any concerns I may have had about the lecture the professor as soon I saw him.
I wish I emailed the TA and the Professor more about questions I had. They typically respond quickly to your emails.
Update the Customer with your process as much as you can. The customer will always try to help you out with any issues or struggles your team may be having. It will also prevent your team from doing things that the customer does not want and can save you a lot of time in the future.
Become acquainted with the QA engineer and make sure he/she knows about any changes or updates your team has on the process of your project.

Things I wish I learned/knew

Task Matrix was initially hard to understand and its benefits were overlooked
Download and learn SolidWorks early in the semester
You can always get waivers/approval of things that violate the requirements if you ask the customer. The customer can be understanding of special situations if valid reasonings are provided.
Take a deep dive in the resources available in professor Hill’s class website. There are many hidden outlines and resources that provide great value to the success of your project. But be cautious of any outdated material as Professor Hill tends to change things from semester to semester. If you are not sure the material is relevant, just ask.

Advice for future generations

Choose your job positions wisely an understand what the job entails. Software engineers typically have a large workload, I advise them to start work early and to ask for help.
Make sure the team reads past blogs as they are very useful. You should do heavy research on Arxterra, Professor Hill’s class website, and other sites early in the semester but I suggest you constantly look back on past project blogs whenever you need clarification on task or need examples. Tip: look at the score the blog posts received to differentiate the good post from the bad.
Get a prototype working ASAP. You and your team need to be able to visualize the tasks needed to make your robot work by the end of the semester. You can simply try to get the pass semester’s robot to work and begin revisions from there.
Plan to make many versions of your robot. You will never be able to design your robot perfectly at the start. That’s okay, just try to 3D print the model and assemble it together. Then you can begin to understand what things you need to revise to make it work. Our group made 3 full 3D printed iterations of the Micro FOBO with some parts having 6 different versions.
Make the meeting minutes as soon as you finish having a team meeting. I highly suggest spending 20 minutes after each meeting writing down what your team did for that day. Make a spot on the meeting minutes for “Homework/Things to do before the next meeting section” and assign group members with the task that they should work on in their own time and before the next meeting. Make a Google Drive Folder with all meeting minutes and share them with all your group members and the customer so they can remain updated with any progress your team is making. Look at our group’s meeting minutes folder as an example of how you can make your own.
When doing your Preliminary Design Presentations make sure you follow the Outline provided on the class website. Memorize your sections in your presentation. Do not read from the slides and be prepared to answer questions from the customer.

Spring 2018: Biped Lessons Learned