Research Task 1 (06/22/15 - 07/03/15)

Drone Intercepting System

1. Start thinking about how to intercept a drone. Search the web for any good methods. Analyze their strengths and weaknesses. Summarize your findings in a spreadsheet (including category, method, description, device, cost, strength, weakness, links, comments).

Physics of Projectile

1. Projectile Motions of Tennis Balls (2013), Mangesh Rai. [chap. 1-3, or 33 pages] Review the basic physics of projectile. It is similar to the high-school physics, just changed to calculus notation. For example, dx/dt is similar to (delta x)/(delta t) except the (delta t) has been push to the limit and is very close to zero. So, v = dx/dt is the instantaneous speed rather than the average speed. The are some new materials such as angular momentum, etc. I believe that you can pick it up yourself.

 Math

1. Matlab Videos, MathWorks. [first 22 short videos, total 1:54: 28] Learn the basic concepts of one of the most popular math tool in engineering schools. We might need to use it to simulate some robot control problems later. You can download the trial version of the product, and browse through the site to see whether there is a free version for K-12 education. 

PID Controller

1. Introduction to PID Control for VEX Robotics, 5757 Team. [1 16-min. videos] Expose to the PID controller which exists in most of the devices requiring control. The PID controller design will be one of the major technique you will pick up this year.

Please take electronic notes while you are studying the materials, watching the videos, or browsing through the web. Each team will present their learning later in the summer meeting.