People living in rural and remote areas generally have poorer health and shorter life expectancies than those living in more advanced urban areas. It is often difficult for rural and smaller communities to access basic healthcare and nearly impossible for specialized treatments/services. The use of remote surgery is a potential solution to this problem, where a specialist connects to a robot remotely and conducts the surgery.
A key task in surgery is the sterilization of the equipment used to remove bacteria. In this project, our team was tasked to design a system for securely transferring a surgical tool to an autoclave for sterilization. We were split into two sub-teams, Computing and Modelling. As a person on the computing sub-team, we design a computer program for controlling the movement of a robotic arm called a Q-Arm to pick up and transfer a container designed by the modeling team for sterilization in an autoclave. Other than working on the code, I was the project coordinator for the computing team, responsible for logging and keeping track of all work done in the project.
<aside> ☑️ Teamwork and Collaboration
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<aside> ☑️ Time Management
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Communication
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<aside> ☑️ Python 3
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<aside> ☑️ Quanser Interactive Labs
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Using the Python 3 language, I developed a program that spawns a random container varying in colour and size. Utilizing two potentiometers to control the Q-Arm’s rotation and joint movement, these containers can be placed into the matching colour autoclave through the top (small container) or into the autoclave drawer (large container). The code was developed to check if the colour and placement are correct using the location and container ID, so that the containers cannot be placed in the wrong spot.
Simulation Environment in Quanser Interactive Labs
Despite not knowing anything about coding prior to entering university, I feel very accomplished by how much I was able to contribute to the computing team. Though there were some parts where my lack of experience was displayed, such as the general Python questions in the team interview, this project greatly improved my skills and knowledge of Python by allowing me to implement what I learned in lectures and labs in practice. Some challenges the computing team and I faced were figuring out how to get the Q-Arm to be controlled by the potentiometer, and splitting the workload evenly, as our communication was lacking a bit. Overall, despite overcoming the challenges of my first coding project, I believe I prefer CAD design and modeling over the coding aspect of these projects. I am looking forward to working on the modeling sub-team for Project 3!