Emma 5 is an autonomous robot project initiated by Prof. T. B. Soules of the UMass ECE Department at the beginning of the 2009-2010 school year.  The project is part of M5's unique student design project program and is instrumental at generating student involvement and provides a setting where students can apply the skills learned in the classroom. The project's blog can be found at http://m5.ecs.umass.edu/wp/blog/category/emma5/. 

As the lone mechanical engineer on the team, I was tasked to design and fabricate the mechanical components of the autonomous system.  I was able to learn a great deal from the Electrical Engineers on the project along the way as well as help out with Arduino coding. 

The Emma 5 project consisted of separate sub-teams responsible for specific components of the project.  Drive team was responsible for controlling the motors, power was responsible for monitoring and controlling the batteries, Sensors was in charge of locating and responding to hazards in the environment, houston (mission control) was responsible for maintaining a communications link via school wifi to the robot, the last subgroup was mechanical and consisted of myself.

From the start of the project, it was known that the robot would be built upon a wheelchair chassis.  The motors were selected by the drive team and I was able to design the motor mounts in Pro-E and commence fabrication.

Pro-E model of the motor mount

Motor mount after installation

Both motor mounts seen after installation

Close-up of the mounting bracket

The battery and sensor mounts have also been designed in CAD but have not yet been fabricated.  At the end of its first year Emma 5 has gained motor control, motor hardware, video over wifi, and an inter-arduino communications protocol among many other small achievements.