Experience at Symbotic
Mechanical Engineering Co-op in New Product Improvement

The following are some of the projects I worked on at Symbotic. I primarily worked on improvements to the Test Stand, which technicians use to diagnose issues and perform maintenance to the robots. I also supported development of a new robot and improvements to the latest robot. Click the images of projects to learn more about them.

Projects

Click Image Above To Learn More About This Project

Gas Spring Replacement

Problem: The gas springs on the test stand were not strong enough to lift the rear tray. And, there's an alternate version of the test stand with no gas springs. Both pose safety concerns for lifting and lowering the rear tray.

Skills used:

Solidworks, MATLAB, Testing and Analysis

Lessons Learned:

Designing with safety and ergonomics in mind

Latching Mechanism

Problem: Current mechanism to secure shelf while raised requires two hands to unlock and lower the shelf. Unlocking the shelf requires significant force and is very uncomfortable for the technician operating the test stand.

Skills used:

Solidworks, GD&T, Design Iteration, Prototyping, Test Design, Fixture Design

Lessons Learned:

How to iterate to improve a design

Click Image Above To Learn More About This Project

Sensor Alignment Tool

Problem: The test stand uses an alignment tool, and the new test stand required a similar tool.

Skills used:

Solidworks, GD&T

Lessons Learned:

Take every chance to improve designs

Click Image Above To Learn More About This Project

CED/CYD Sensor Tolerance Stack

Problem: The test stand was redesigned to combine calibration and alignment for two different robots. To support the redesign, I performed a tolerance analysis to verify the correct dimensions between the sensors and the targets.

Skills used:

Tolerance Analysis, GD&T

Lessons Learned:

How to perform a tolerance analysis

Click Image Above To Learn More About This Project

Click Image Above To Learn More About This Project

Symbot 1.0 Connection Analysis

Problem: There were issues at sites with loose hardware and cables which affected the robot performance, so the goal was to identify the weak spots on the robot to see what to focus on

Skills used:

Assembly Drawings, Electrical Drawings

Lessons Learned:

How to read electrical drawings

Alternate Test Stand and Storage Hotel

Problem: We wanted to explore an alternate test stand and storage hotel made out of extruded aluminum instead of welded steel for cost saving reasons.

Skills used: