CS235: Applied Robot Design for Non-Robot-Designers

How to Fix, Modify, Design, and Build Robots

New Course for Spring 2012
Monday and Wednesday 4:15-6:05, Clark S361 (3rd floor, next to Peet's Coffee)
Students will learn how to design and build the mechanical hardware of robots. The goal
is to take people with no mechanical or hands-on experience and have them building
professional-quality robots by the end of the quarter. The course will consist of weekly
labs and a final project (no tests), each of which will entail building an interesting robotic
device. For example, the belts lab will have students build a pan-tilt camera turret. Each
lecture will consist of dissecting parts and mechanisms, sketching designs, and practicing
fabrication. Students will use plug-and-play electronics and starter code to control their
mechanical creations. This course is open to graduate students in all departments or by
permission of the instructors.
Topics will include:

Motors (DC, brushless, stepper, servo, and ultrasonic)

Other actuators (pneumatic, hydraulic, piezoelectric, SMA, and solenoids)
Position/velocity sensing (quadrature/absolute encoders, homing flags, and tachometers)
Mechanical transmission (gears, belts, cables, friction rollers, and universal/flex couplers)
Rotary and linear motion (bearings, bushings, splines, rack and pinion, and screws)
Counterbalancing (gravity and springs)
Framing (80-20 and vibration isolation)
Wheels (pneumatic, solid, shocks, and treads)
Design for safety and robustness (joint limits, clutches, brakes, pinch points, and covers)
Standard mechanisms (4-bar parallelogram, remote center of motion, differential, wrist
design, and gripper design)

Our challenge is this: if you think you might be hopelessly lost as a hands-on person or a
mechanical designer, let us prove you wrong in this course!
Co-Instructors: Reuben Brewer and J. Kenneth Salisbury