The purpose of the Pangaroos is to deliver a portable charger in a box safely to the ground and we plan to do that by designing a parachute. Our research  question is how holes in the parachute will affect the accuracy and drag of the package.

While designing and testing the parachute, I changed my parachute by changing the number of holes in the parachute, things that stayed constant was the size of the parachute, the length of the strings, and the material of the parachute being light plastic.

The first design has no hole in it, and the second design has one in the middle (might be hard to see). Challenges for both of the designs was to make and attach the rim of the parachute since it was a circular parachute and the rim had to curve around it the whole way.

All 10 of my drops had no bounces, which met our criteria of having none. The distance away from target has always been below 1 meter, the furthest being 0.8 centimeters, which was dropped by my parachute that had no holes, and the most accurate being 0.4 cm dropped by my parachute with a hole in the middle, and out criteria was at most 1 meter away from target. Finally, the fastest speed for every single drop was below 3 meters per second the fastest was 2.9 mps, the speed held by the parachute with 1 hole, and the slowest fastest speed (I hope this makes sense) is 2.1 mps, held by the parachute with no hole. Our criteria were to get the speed down to 5.12 mps. I am very surprised to see that every single criteria was met, but I always wonder how much more faster and how the accuracy would be affected if it was falling from 10m instead of 2, but the thing that surprised me most is still how I managed to make the fastest speed of my parachute was below 3 mps while the criteria was above 5 mps.

Having a single hole in the middle is the best for making a accurate parachute. I say that because my parachute with no hole has an average of landing 0.63 meters away from the target while my parachute with one hole in the middle has an average of landing 0.55 meters away from the target. But when my parachute does not have a hole in the middle, it falls slower, for example, the average fastest speed of the parachute with no hole is 2.38 meters per second, while the parachute with a hole has an average fastest fall speed of 2.62 mps. For our group, I suggest that we have a single hole in the middle. That is because my fastest fastest speed is 2.9 mps, while our criteria is 5.12 mps, but when I do not have a hole in the middle of the parachute, the distance away from the target can go up to 0.8 m, even though the criteria is 1 meter, it is still dangerously close to going out of 1 m and might go out of 1 m easily if there’s a slight breeze while it is landing. Therefore, I highly suggest that we have a hole in the middle so that it will not be easily blown away from target.

Because of the coronavirus in China, we had to continue our projects at home, so here we are, making and dropping parachutes, in a house. The purpose of the Pangaroos is to deliver a portable charger in a box safely to the ground and we plan to do that by designing a parachute. Our research  question is how holes in the parachute will affect the accuracy and drag of the package.

This is the procedure we plan to use to collect data for our drops:

1. Place items into box and seal box with tape  
2. Clear area underneath dropping area  
3. Set up ladder
4. Prop up iPhone on iPhone holder 
5. Press record button on iPhone
6. Climb up ladder with package
7. Release the package
8. Get off the ladder
9. Stop recording by pressing record button again
10. Cut the recording so only the falling package part remains
11. Send video to computer
12. Upload video into logger pro
13. Record data with logger pro
14. Repeat steps 1-13 5 times

And this is the data table for collecting data:

String: 45cm
Parachute Diameter: 65cm
I made the Diameter smaller and the cotton string longer since that it will drag the parachute in if the parachute is bigger and the string is shorter.

The purpose of the Pangaroos is to deliver a portable charger in a box safely to the ground and we plan to do that by designing a parachute. Our research  question is how holes in the parachute will affect the accuracy and drag of the package.

Prediction: I predict that one hole in the middle will be best for the design because according to answers.com a single hole in the center of the parachute can control the wind output.

We are changing the variables by: Having no holes, having one hole and having one hole on in the middle with two holes on the sides.

Procedure: 

1. 1. Place items into box and seal box with tape  
   2. Clear area underneath dropping area  
   3. Prop up iPad on shelf and check if the bottom of the screen aligns with the furthest line of the floor and the top of the screen capture  
   4. Put package hook on Drop machine hook  
   5. Press iPad record button and countdown from 3 seconds
   6. Turn on Drop machine, the button is located at the left of the top side. 
   7. Turn on the controller, the button is at the middle for the top of the controller. 
   8. Release the package, press the R at the right side of the controller 
   9. Bring back the hook, press B 
   10. Record data into logger pro
   11. Repeat steps 1-10 5 times

Part 1

I think the most difficult part of this project for me is to do the programming, because all the programming I have done was for the computer, and I have never programmed for a robot before. Programming for a robot is a really new and challenging thing for me. The most enjoyable part of this project is also the programming, since I have learned how to use Arduino and how to program a robot. I think the thing that I did well was the programming, even though it was my first-time doing Arduino programming and programming for robots, I think I did pretty well.

Part 2a

I think the most difficult part of building my robot is the wing, I learned that there are many ways to build a robot, for example, the wing of our robot can be made in many different ways, at first, we planned to attach the wing straight to the servo but then we thought to the servo but then we thought to the servo but then we thought to attach it on a popsicle stick instead. The most enjoyable aspect of this project is building the robot, since I learned a lot of things while building it like, how can we attach the wing so it can move while not crashing into other parts of the robot. What I think I did well was the programming part, since I have never experienced Arduino programming, it wasn’t easy for me to learn and do things with a textual programming language but I somehow still managed to pull it off. What I would do differently next time is how I would make the wings first before I make the body since the wings are the parts that move and the body is what I attach the wings on.

Part 2b

I learned a lot of ways to attach something to something else and which ways are more stable and uneasy to break than others. I learned a lot about programming in Arduino since I have never done it before and that its also textual programming which made it way harder than using snap which uses blocks. I would like to learn how and what other things Arduino can do, since I only learned what I needed to know to program my robot.

An advice I would want to give a student that is beginning this unit is to try out Arduino programming because it really isn’t that hard especially with Ms. Kim helping you, and with Arduino programming you can do a lot more things than what you can do with snap, and even if you have programming experince like me, you can still learn a lot programming in Arduino.

Sorry I can’t find any pictures of the actual robot 🙁

This unit made me think differently about coding, for example, I used to think that coding is just text programming, but now I think that there are many ways of programming like block coding, and even block coding has many types, for instance, it might be java thats running behind it, python or other programming languages. I used to also think that coding can be very hard, but after this unit I think that everyone can learn basic programming.

This unit’s criteria was to design an app for a client with a problem that app I make can solve, my client was my mom and her problem was that she couldn’t decide what to eat for dinner often.  That’s why I decided to make an app for her that can solve this problem of hers.

The app I designed was an app that would ask you some questions e.g. “Are you hungry today?” and pick a food appropriate for that night. I choose this design because not only it will solve her problem of not knowing what to eat for dinner but it will also pick an appropriate food that night since the food it chooses will be based on the questions you answered and is not random.

The app when started up will have a question that appears first, and then another before it actually chooses a food for you. The food chosen is based on the answers that you have selected for the two questions that appear first. Sadly I didn’t have much time to decorate it much because I sometimes got off-task in class.

A strength of my app is that it can choose a food for you very quickly and that food chosen will also be very suitable for you. A weakness of my app is that I didn’t really make it look that good, I only put in four different food choices, and that I had only two questions which makes it less specific.

Below are some pictures of the programming I did for the app.

Click HERE to see a video of the app working.

What do you do when there’s something you need immediately? Call someone to deliver it? Don’t you think that might be slow? But is there any faster way? What if you can fly your package over to you instead? Even if your in the middle of a street? Plus, how many people do you think companies have to hire to deliver something to you? Have you ever thought about about drone delivery? A drone doesn’t need someone to pilot it, which means it will be less expensive, and that it will be way faster than normal delivery. Our project is about making a package that can fall from the drone and deliver the package to you safely. What we deliver is going to be portable chargers, we choose it because many people outside have their phone running out of battery when they need it, now since we can safely deliver a portable charger to them, they wouldn’t have to worry about their phone running out of battery anymore.

Our research question is how holes in the parachute might affect the accuracy and the drag of the product when falling. What we are varying is how many and where the holes are placed in the parachute and what shape the holes are. We aim to make the package fall and land within 75 centimeters of wherever we want it to land. Our goal is to make the parachute more accurate without speeding up the parachute much by adding holes.

Drop 0 is our first drop which is just the package without any protection or parachute. The purpose of Drop 0 is to see if our design decreased the velocity of the package.

Claim: We are going to need a hole in the parachute to make it more accurate because it sometimes doesn’t fall within 50 cm from the landing point.

Evidence: The furthest one away from landing point was 75 cm.

Reasoning: The furthest one away from the landing point was 75 cm and we need it to land within 50 cm instead which is why we would need a hole in the parachute since that would make it more accurate.

Looking back on Project Self, I learned that I have to do my work, but I also have to have some fun or else I would be bored, but I also need to finish my work or else I won’t be able to have fun. For example, if I don’t get my work done in time, I will not have time to have fun. Looking back on Project Self, I also realized that I have to make good choices for myself even though it can really be tempting to chat or do something else instead of doing in work, but if I don’t do work, I’ll never finish things in time.