College of Engineering Unit:
Our project aims to develop a robotic tentacle arm that can move freely and accurately in 3D space, while maintaining a low production cost of $300. The arm is built with 3D-printed components, and connected to a user's computer over USB. Our team implemented a mechanical system for moving the arm itself, a PCB and various electronics to communicate between components, and software to visualize the arm through a simulation and allow the user to enter coordinates. Each of these systems required extensive testing to not only ensure that they could function independently, but also be easily to integrate together. Integrating all of the mechanics proved to be somewhat of a challenge, so we were unable to do as much movement testing as we would have liked to. The parts that we did complete ended up being reliable and easy to use, something that we'll continue to focus on with future endeavors. If development continued, we are confident that our team would be able to get the arm to a point where it could perform reliable, accurate movement.