ME218 is a three quarter sequence of mechatronics courses offered at Stanford. Each course runs for 10 weeks, builds upon concepts learned in the previous ones, and culminates in a 2-3 week team project that focuses on programmable electromechanical systems design, prototyping, iteration, and implementation. Each team is responsible for software, hardware, and mechanical design. These are by far my favorite courses I have ever taken!
Below are links to our project websites.
The final project required teams to create a new kind of biathlon by combining two sports. The biathlon would become an arcade game for two players. My team designed "The Modern Day Biathlon" that converted the conventional biathlon- skiing and rifle shooting- into Skee-ing (skee-ball) and laser gun shooting. Each project required implementation of sensors, actuators, and event-driven software (developed by Ed Carryer) to create an interactive game. My main role this quarter was design and implementation of the circuits and the laser guns in addition to debugging the integrated system.
Click photo for project website.
Here, each team was tasked with developing an autonomous robot to play 'Joustball,' a combination of medieval jousting and Nerf® soccer. Robots had 'knights' resting on platforms and foam 'swords' to knock each others' knights off and shooters to eject balls at the opposing team's goal. The game field incorporated a vision system based on the Reactivison software which allows the competing robots to know what phase of the match was occurring and when they were permitted to begin. This information was broadcast over wireless X-Bee radios. This quarter, I again led hardware design (with Yi) but also shared the software component with Giulia.
Click photo for project website.
In this course, we learned assembly and programmed PICs. The projects involved design of a remote-controlled hovercraft (the 'player') and a controller (the 'coach') to compete in the Soccer World Cup. Coaches communicated commands to the players to steer them. All players had unique identifiers that allowed any coach to pair with any player and send it commands.
This quarter, I broke my ankle once the project had started. After spending 5 days in the hospital, I rejoined my team, soldered everything, implemented the hardware, and joined the team in debugging the integrated system. Our hovercraft sports Messi's jersey (see below).
Click photo for project website.