With any engineering endeavor where innovation is taking place at unprecedented levels, such as robotics, prototyping is an absolute must. Prototyping offers engineering teams the ability to test and understand if a project is feasible both technically and economically, while mitigating the risk associated with building a ready-to-deploy system. Prototypes help one to iterate on a design, using the parts that work while refining those that fall short of applications. Ultimately, the prototype allows you to put your best foot forward when presenting to customers and investors who help determine the level of success at your company.
each of these subsystems. The same can hold true for the software engineers on staff, constantly refining and optimizing code, resulting in slipping deadlines. This process of optimization can often become a giant time sink at the beginning of the project, a time when it is most important to validate whether the project is possible and economically viable. Many projects run out of money and time before anyone ever sees what the engineers have been working on. While cost is an important factor, the goal of the prototype is to create a platform that is within a striking distance of profitability. The robotic team should focus on building a system that clearly demonstrates the value the robot offers. Setting this as your bar of success will help your team showcase your technology to the public before running out of capital. Once customers and investors are interested and supportive, your team can then focus on optimizing the design down to an efficient and profitable system. Reconfigurable I/O Sensors and actuators are what allow a robot to experience and manipulate the world. Unfortunately, at the beginning of the design process, it’s almost impossible to know all the details about the inputs and outputs of the system, including what voltage levels are required, sampling rates, number of channels of input and number of digital lines just to name a few. That being said, incorporating I/O in your prototype is essential in creating a truly functional system. By adding sensory input and control output, engineers prove their design can be implemented in the real world. Creating a paper design, implementing that design in software and even simulating the design in a virtual environment are still largely conceptual exercises. To prove the value of your design to skeptical investors, the prototype needs to receive data and respond accordingly. Additionally, data from prototyping operations helps you refine functional requirements with clients and the rest of the design team based on actual performance. Choosing a prototyping platform that allows engineers to quickly swap out I/O and try new combinations allows your robot to be dynamic and change as the engineers learn more about the problem they’re trying to solve. The robot in Figure 2 is a National Instruments based platform that enables engineers to mix and match I/O depending on the needs of the system. This allows you to quickly prompt a robot to interact with the real world, while still permitting the flexibility to change when necessary. Design for Reuse One aim of the prototype is to be able to move to a subsequent design, either one more optimized and closer to the end product or one that incorporates customer feedback. In either case, the engineering team must decide which components can be used in the next iteration of the design. Extra focus must be given to these components— whether a communication protocol or software algorithm—to ensure that their interfaces and implementations make them as portable as possible in the next phase of development. This involves making sure you have consistent interfaces, decoupling components and maintain a modular design. When choosing tools to prototype your system, it is important to consider whether these tools offer a platform that can enable engineers and scientists to develop the system at the volume required and at a price point that is profitable Demonstrate Your Prototype It should be easy to demonstrate your robotic prototype. This prototype will become your calling card–the first thing that customers, venture capitalists, and potential employees notice. A prototype that is easy to set up and quickly illustrates what differentiates your product is the best way to generate positive buzz around the company and robot. When pitching your idea, show the demo as quickly as possible. An impressive demo can do so much more for your company and product than simple slides on a projector.
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