Author: andrew_epperson

Day 8- Andrew

Today was my last day at Intuitive Surgical. I spent my morning finishing the nylon 3D print, and analyzing the data from the tests with the PETG 3D prints. In the afternoon I worked on finishing the presentation I would be giving later in the day, and did my final Instron test on the nylon print. This print ended up being my strongest, being able to withstand 210 pounds of force. To wrap up the day I presented my findings from my work over the past two weeks to the engineers at the office.

 

I had a great experience at Intuitive Surgical over the last two weeks, and would like to thank everyone at Intuitive for hosting me.

 

Andrew- Day 7

Today I worked on setting up a special 3D printer to print my designs out of carbon fiber nylon. A different 3D printer had to be used to as nylon requires extremely high temperatures to be able to print properly. Once the 11 hour print began, I spent the rest of the day working on CAD- designing an adaptor for their lazar cutter so that it could be hooked up to a ventilation system. Tomorrow the nylon prints will be ready for testing, and I will be able to conclude the project I have been working on for the past two weeks.

3D printer printing the nylon parts:

Andrew- Day 6

Today at Intuitive surgical, the morning was spent cleaning up the PETG plastic 3D prints that were printed over the weekend. In the afternoon the PETG  designs were tested with the Instron machine (a machine that can apply and measure extremely high on an object in compression or tension). It was found that the PETG designs were slightly weaker overall, compared to the PLA designs previously tested. To wrap up the day I worked on setting up a special 3D printer that is able to print carbon fiber nylon plastic, an extremely strong material that can withstand much higher compressive strengths.

 

One of the designs being tested:

Andrew- Day 5

Today was more 3D printing, printing out the same designs as yesterday but out of PETG plastic. PETG plastic is a heavier and is a lot stronger the PLA plastic used yesterday. After the 3D printing finishes over the long weekend, the final testing with the instron will be completed. While the parts were 3D printing, I spent my time refining a new CAD design- hoping to fix the flaws of the previous designs.

Andrew- Day 4

This morning was a continuation of of the work I was doing yesterday, finalizing the second design of the cantilever beam and 3D printing all of the designs. In the afternoon, the designs were able to be tested by putting them in a instron machine- a device that can apply extreamly high pressures, while being able to very accurately measure the force it was applying. After testing the breaking point of all four 3D prints, it was found that the second design to was significantly stronger, able to resist 160-180 pounds of force while the first design broke after only about 20 pounds of force.

Andrew- Day 3

Today Rohen and Tymur continued their work with electronics, while I worked on my CAD designs for the build challenge. As a reminder the build challenge is to design a cantilever beam that can withstand 50 pounds of force, while being as light as possible. The first CAD design was finished and 3D printed in the morning. The second CAD design was first created by running a computer simulation to evaluate the most efficient and lightweight design to withstand the 50 pounds of force. From this simulation, the second CAD design was modeled and 3D printed for tomorrow morning.

Results of computer simulation:

 

Working on cleaning up 3D print:

Andrew- Day 2 at Intuitive

Today at Intuitive Tymur, Rohen, and I spent the morning learning more about electrical engineering. We had a crash course in electrical engineering and electronics- learning about circuits, voltage, resistors, and more. We then worked on our soldering skills as we assembled a simple circuit that functioned as a power supply that read the voltage output. In the afternoon Tymur and Rohen continued their work with electronics while I was introduced with a build design challenge. The challenge is to design a cantilever beam (think of a diving board) that can withstand 50 pounds of force from a 1/2 inch rod, 2.5 inches away from it’s mounting point. I then spent the rest of today working in CAD on coming up with my first design for this challenge. Something that fascinated me today was the power of circuit diagrams in being able to convey information about a circuit.

Andrew- Day 1 at Intuitive

Today at Intuitive, Rohen, Tymur, and I worked together and spent our day working with Intuitive’s Da Vinci surgical robot. In the morning we spent our time learning about the functions of the Da Vinci robot, then we spent time operating the machine. I was amazed in the precision of the machine and how it could be used to complete complex tasks with easy. The robot was surprisingly not that complex to operate as well. With only 20 minutes of practice I was able to tie knots in rope, using the machine. In the afternoon we visited Intuitive’s building in RTP where they take old model Da Vinci robots from hospitals, and upgrade them to newest models with the latest technology.

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