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https://lucid.app/lucidchart/e79da402-89ea-441a-b9d4-cb9d603ac5f3/edit?viewport_loc=-194%2C-354%2C2110%2C964%2C0_0&invitationId=inv_f9c4f7ac-3921-4bf9-86f0-24d9483ecb20

Proposal A - Whiteboard Robot

Problem:

Whiteboards are great tools that are used a lot in our academic setting, as they rely on people to clean them, this task can be tedious and often simply forgotten, this leaves us with some issues.

• Stains the board: when people forget to clean the board, the ink dries out and becomes more difficult to remove, maybe even leading to permanent stains and a "ghosting" that ruins the board's surface.
• Wastes time for the next user: the task of cleaning is passed on to the next person, which often leads to waste time at the beginning of a class, causing frustration due to the unnecessary delays.
• It's a repetitive chore: as any chore that requires manual labor, it becomes repetitive doing it after a class is over day after day, this suggests that automation may be applicable.

Proposed Solution:

Our solution proposes that a small robot will be coupled to a whiteboard to perform the tasks.

• The robot’s movement structure is made with aluminium profiles and threaded rods.
• The pens and the eraser, which will be a pen-like structure with an eraser at the end, will be stored in a barrel structure.
• The main moving structure will contain a barrel pen holder which can be used to draw and erase whenever it’s desired. This structure will spin assisted by a servo motor, allowing for quick positioning of the pen into position to adequately draw, then, the pen can be pushed forward into the whiteboard to draw.
• A camera will be placed in the structure to check if a user has been present in the last few minutes and erase the board to prevent the paint from drying.
• In order to draw, an image can be sent to the robot via the internet. The robot will then process the image and follow the lines accordingly.

Functional Requirements:

1. The robot must write and draw on the whiteboard.
2. The robot must move in a plane parallel to the whiteboard.
3. The pen holding mechanism must be able to push and pull the pen located at the drawing position.
4. The pen’s barrel of the robot must have 4 pens slots and 1 eraser slot.