This is the time when I get say, “I AM FINALLY FREE…!!!”
After 10 months struggling, the project is finally done. Though much sacrifice has been made, the end result and sense of satisfaction has outweighed the frustration I’ve endured.
As promised (to some of you), here’s a video of my project.
Ok la it’s not something very fantastic, don’t laugh la…
9 days left to my viva… and my boy is still not “standing still”… Nah, don’t think “dirty” things ok…
For those who don’t know what bothers me most for the past whole year and those who are not sure of what I’m crapping here , it’s my final year project… A two wheeled self balancing robot… Lots of trial and error involved and lots of frustration. Modification after modification, and now it’s finalized.
My very first version that didn’t work at all:
Weight: about 4 kg something (not including circuits and drivers)
Height: 0.7 meter
Reason of failure: The motors are too heavy, resulting low center of gravity.
The second version that’s unstable:
Weight: 2 kg
Height: 0.55 meter
Reason of failure: Frankly, I also don’t know what’s the reason… it balanced at one spot, then started swaying bigger and bigger, then fell. Maybe the algorithm was not right or suitable.
…And now, the third and final version.
Weight: 1.8 kg
Height: 0.36 meter
Deliverable: Uncertain, still in the process of tuning.
Gonna rush for the next few days… Hopefully everything goes well.
Hurray!!! Finally it’s over… well, more precisely, partially over. =)
Yesterday was one of the most hectic day for all the final years. Everyone was rushing to prepare to give their very best to impress the panels in 8 minutes. That was the most precious yet most suffocating 8 minutes…
I was lucky to be judged by a few good ones. No killing questions, no full-powered-blast comments, just took a few small “bullets”… but some of my friends was not that lucky. Anyway, just let bygones be bygones…
After watching a few friends’ presentation, I realized that there are still so many things that I yet to learn. So many advanced technologies have been available in the market that we’re unaware of.
Ya, most of you might say, “Of course Calvin, you’re a nerd!” or “Dun be so kiasu!“.
Well, I do agree with that partially. But after being in the engineering field for years, I somehow feel that the outside world has much more to offer, provided we take the initiative to go for them, taking step by step to approach them, appreciate them.
Somehow I suddenly realized that I have been wasting so much time in the past. Instead of doing the right thing, I just complaint that I have a boring life.
Life is never boring if we know what we want, and take action to achieve it. Human’s needs are endless, but how many are willing to sacrifice, to work hard to achieve them? Work delayed is work undone, so how many of us are actually aware of it whenever we give excuse such as “Can I do it later?”.
Well, I think all these depend on how much we weight our needs. If we don’t apply a certain “weighting” to our targets, we would never achieve them. Instead of advancing, we would just sit back and procrastinate.
My job is still undone, and I’m now looking forward to my FYP2, where the interesting things will begin…
I’ve been missing in action for quite sometimes… mainly due to my final year and what I expect to be a “toy” suddenly become part of my professor’s research.
Many seniors once told me that final year is really “no play play” and I always doubted that. “What on Earth in this final year that can be worse than being in the Robocon team?”
I mean I’ve been used to staying up late for 2 years, rushing this and that, working under pressure, bla bla bla… so final year should be quite relaxing… that’s what I thought… (aw… I’m damn cocky)
Unfortunately, this year the whole batch of students have started their final year project quite late. A few of my friends from other uni have been asking bout my progress and to their surprise, I always come up with, “Sorry, I still haven’t started anything yet…”. This is already the end of the 5th week and most students have not even started anything (including me =P). Instead, most of the time we’re struggling to keep up with our weekly homeworks, small projects, lab works and assignments.
As adviced by one of my seniors, I wanted to do something simple for my project. I don’t wanna spend too much time on it as I realise most of the things that I’ve been studying and working on are more to self-interest and will not be of any great help in my future career. If possible, I wish to complete at least 70% of it by the end of this semester. With this, next semester I can have time to get myself prepared and start searching for job.
But things are not as easy as I thought. Instead of doing a hobbyist’s “toy”, which in my case is simply a self balancing robot using gyro and accelerometer, I am now more like doing research. We are required to do it in a more “academic” way and that’s where the pressure lies. We have choices, but sometimes it is not up to us to make the decision (I can’t believe I am saying this, which is so contrary to my previous post.).
Nevertheless, I’m still very optimistic with my current life. I will survive.
p/s: If anyone come across any shop in Malaysia selling “Sparkfun IMU 5 degree of freedom” cheaper than RM450, kindly contact me.
i missed my snow days in uk too.. haha.. although, to...