Un-tiled

Un-tiled is a novelty pick-and-place machine capable of plotting (and animating) low-resolution binary images. It uses a pneumatic tool head and a 3-axis gantry to manipulate a grid of dual-colored tiles. Tiles are picked up and flipped over one by one to form a complete picture.

Un-tiled was developed by a 5-person team over an 8-week scrum-style workflow where we exercised iterative and agile design practices.

x-axis

To cut down on the "time-per-tile-flip", the gantry was optimized for speed. The team performed a trade study on a variety of kinematic systems, settling on a cartesian architecture for the final design.

I took on the design and integration of the x-axis motion system and supporting structure. Custom metal mounting plates were used to provide a robust connection between the x-axis stepper motor, cross-beam, and belt tensioner mechanism. Parametric modeling helped my design integrate correctly with the other sub-systems across multiple design revisions.

flipper

I also develped the passive tile flipper system.

I was able to move from an idea to a working prototype in just a few hours with the aid of 3D printing. Subsequent iterations of the mechanism sought to eliminate different failure modes that would emerge during testing.

In addition to tuning the mechanical reliability, we implemented software-based fault detection and resolution to the flipper system. This increased the overall fault-tolerance of the machine, allowing it to run for even longer without operator intervention.