Inspiration
When we got to campus, we realized that being connected to our friends in a safe way was going to be essential. In years past (in pre COVID time), we found joy in being able to gift our friends food and other items. We wanted to create this experience in a safe, sanitary way, and built a non-invasive, portable system to transport things between building floors. We feel that this could be applicable in many types of buildings, and could be useful in everything from helping neighbors share flour to delivering kind notes to friends.
What it does
Our system attaches to any window, utlizing a hook and paracord to create tension. This design does not damage windows or buildings, and allows for easy removal. Essentially, it transports a box of anything a user desires up and down a building outside the windows. It can be controlled wirelessly via a users keyboard so that anyone can call it or send it to whomever they'd like.
How we built it
Without much shop space and a limited timeline, we had to be innovative in creating our machine. While at first glance, it may look a little like a middle school science fair submission, our mechanical system is a complex mix of laser cut and 3D printed gears, hand hack-sawed wood, paracord, and love. On the software and electrical sides, we used a Arduino Uno, Motor Shield, an obscene amount of C++, and Stack Overflow to develop a system to control our elevator.
Challenges we ran into
Where to begin? Firstly, with very limited access to a shop, it was tough to compete in a "make-a-thon". We spent a lot of time trying to make do with what we had around and the machines available. Due to the remote nature of the event, we also spent a good amount of time (and money) running to various hardware and electronics stores to get the things we needed to create our system. Thankfully, two trips to home depot, two school wide emails asking for parts, one trip to "You-do-it" Electronic and many parts from old projects allowed us to create our submission. From a software perspective, we hoped to connect via Bluetooth to our device so that people could easily call things
What we learned
We learned that hardware and software integration without full access to a machine shop requires a lot of scrappy innovation and mcguiver-ing. We spent a lot of time figuring out how to make a tension-based structure sound, and easily removable, without any damage to its mounting location. We also learned about how to distinguish and debug Bluetooth UART and SPI protocols. We learned which corners we could cut while still achieving our minimum viable product, and which corners were more crucial. We also learned that drop-tests are a good, albeit risky, way to evaluate the structural integrity of a mechanical system (even if the tests are accidental).
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We combined a variety of manufacturing techniques to make something that works! (mostly). We are very happy that we were able to send snacks to the suite below us, and that our frame is drop-proof, with the ability to stay out in the cold! Most importantly, we had a fun time :)
What's next for Ascend
We are going to make higher fidelity parts and hang our device from the fourth story of the building in order to deliver goods to everyone in our column.
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