Introducing Eli and I

Hello, world! and welcome to my blog.

First things first, get to know me! I’m in my third year of Engineering with Management; a unique course offered in Trinity College Dublin. One of 7 girls amidst 21 boys, blessed are thou amongst men as despite the unequal numbers there is a great dynamic in the group. We all motivate, inspire, encourage and help each other out, something which I think is especially important these days. Engineers by nature work in teams so the fact that, as students, we have still managed to keep up the camaraderie in isolation, is a great asset to us all.

Now that that’s out of the way, we’ll move on to ‘Eli’; he is the main attraction here after all! So, with regards my course, the continuation of online learning has led to the implementation of contingency plans for all modules undertaken by Engineering with Management. While this has affected many teaching plans, this is especially true for our own Design module. I was disheartened to hear the module descriptor, which entailed in person collaboration, would be scrapped. Buuuut thankfully, for once, the back up plan might actually be just as exciting as the original; or maybe even better! Our professor has tasked the class with a number of assignments centred around the ELEGOO Tumbler Robot Kit pictured below.

This is an exciting piece of equipment that I am eager to get my hands on and begin tinkering with. It features multiple fascinating functions like IR control, auto-follow, obstacle avoidance, bouncing mode and is fully compatible with Arduino IDE; all aspects which should aid me in my execution of the tasks outlined by our lecturer. These assignments include:

• Creating an accurate CAD model of the robot
• Assembling the kit
• Constructing an obstacle course which the robot must be programmed to successfully manoeuvre about
• Design a system which launches a Ping Pong ball upon manual initiation
• Modify the robot; inclusive of a mechanism to catch said launched Ping Pong balls
• Fabricate a Rube Goldberg machine which incorporates the robot

Aside from the constraints of functions which the robot must be able to perform, we have been given a largely artistic license by our professor in terms of how to realise these objectives and of course how to design our obstacle course and Rube Goldberg machine.

I cannot wait to cultivate my hands-on engineering skills and to make this project my own. This is such a cute piece of kit and reminds me somewhat of Wall-E. So, to begin my personalisation of this project, I have decided to christen my machine (as you’ve probaaably guessed by now) ‘Eli’ rather than referring to it as ‘the robot’. So stay tuned as Eli and I smash these assignments one by one!

Also, if you’re looking for more regular updates on our progress, please follow my twitter @aoifemcl3008! I hope to see you there :)