Week 9
Machine and Mechanical Design
We decided to make a camera dolly on the lines of this
we felt that this would help us document our work better. It would move horizontally and vertically on X and Y axis, and rotate on X axis, allowing us to take a 360 degree view.
My Role
Apart from the brainstorming and needs assessment we did as a group on the design, the feature set we wanted, I focussed on material procurement, getting the material needed from local stores in the city with Dhruv. 
I then helped cut the wood to the sizes we required. All the wood we sued was scrap picked up across the campus 
As we progressed, it became clear that we needed to test the system's ability to carry a camera on the rails. So I 3D printed a end cap-cum-camera holder based on the width of the steel rods we got (12mm). 
Shows my role as a documenter when the testing of the 3D printed part was done. Weunderstood that if we increased the weight of the base, and rigidity of the part on the first level of rails, the system could easily take a 4-5 kg camera kit without toplig or tilting. As a result, we ended this week with an final prototype 
Division of Roles in the Team
Ashish and Avishek are architects, and took it on them to design the machine. Dhruv is a great prototyper, and was key to all prototyping tests and solving problems. I am good at getting materials, thinking corner cases, and trying to leapfrog a level ahead. We decided to play to our strengths and work as a team.
Going Ahead
We realised that this system needed more changes to accomodate the larger motors we decided to use. Our Group's documentation is here.
Learning for me
This is the first time I got to see and experience the intense effort behind the development of a product. I saw mechanical and machine design, load calculations, need assesments, budgets, timelines upclose. This helped me make my final project better, by considering more aspects, from a comprehensive perspective. I thought of design of the case for the first time. This was a good learning for me. It also highlighted the detailed testing any product needs to go through.
