Welcome to the UW Robotics Mechanical Team! This training is designed to teach you the skills required to take on tasks within the team. It will teach you about SolidWorks design, part fabrication/manufacturing techniques and more.
The training is designed to challenge your skills and encourage self teaching. However, if you are having trouble with any parts of the training please feel free to contact anyone on the mechanical team! We are more than happy to help you work through it .

Currently, our team designs Mars Rover Robots to compete in the annual University Challenge in Utah. In this competition, we have to design a rover capable of completing four missions - Science, Autonomy, Equipment Servicing and Extreme Retrieval and Delivery. Please read the rules for URC 2024. The rules change slightly every year, but generally remain very similar. To compete in URC, our team needs to submit a System Acceptance Review (SAR) package. Part of this submission involves creating a 5min video to showcase our rover. 

Extra Information on URC

If you'd like to learn more about the URC competition, please check out their website. If you have time, this video also does a great job to showcase what the competition is all about! 

If you plan to work on the rover on campus, mechanical members are required to complete their Machine Shop Training. Completion of this training will give you access to the Engineering machine shops on campus and will be essential for the fabrication of most mechanical projects. The training will also teach you about machining! The training is available in the ‘Self Registration’ section of LEARN.

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After enrolling, the course should appear on your homepage. Completing the online course will grant you a Machine Shop access. Additional training for more advanced machining techniques are available from the Engineering Student Machine Shop staff. It is highly recommended to complete your lathe and mill training as soon as possible, although the completion of additional training is not required for joining the mechanical sub-team.

You also need to complete the WHIMIS 2017 training as a prerequisite of the machine shop training. If you are part of MME, this is the same training course you need to complete for any lab. 

SolidWorks is the CAD software used by the team for mechanical design. Our team currently uses SolidWorks 2023-2024, so please update your software if you are running an older version. If you are part of the MME department, feel free to use the student licenses provided by the University of Waterloo. However, if you do not have access to an educational license through our school please see the steps below:

To get access to SolidWorks, follow the steps at: Downloading SOLIDWORKS.

As mentioned in Section 5.0 of this training, our team uses SolidWorks to create defined models of parts used in our rover. CAD is a critical part of our workflow, as it lets us visualize parts that we want to create, virtually assess form, fit and functions of designs, assists with creating manufacturing documentation and much more. This section of the training will get you up to speed with using the software. 

If you have never used a 3D CAD software, getting started with SolidWorks may seem a bit intimidating. Don't worry though, there are lots of online resources that can teach you how to use SolidWorks! 

• LinkedinLearning: University of Waterloo students have access to LinkedinLearning for free. Gabriel Corbett has an excellent series on how to learn SolidWorks, so if you are complete beginner I highly suggest you watch his series.
  https://www.linkedin.com/learning/learning-solidworks/design-your-world-with-solidworks?u=55034593

• SolidWorks Tutorials: SolidWorks also hosts some great tutorials right inside of the software. To access these tutorials, click on the search bar and select "Tutorials"
  
  

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  • Complete all of the tutorials in the "Getting Started" tab (although feel free to skip the AutoCAD and SOLIDWORKS tutorial as the team does not use AutoCAD on a regular basis).

  • I would also suggest you watch the "Pattern Features, Revolves and Sweeps and Assembly Mates" tutorials in the "Basic Techniques" tab.

Our team uses various for parts and drawings. You should use these templates as applicable when you are designing something for the team. Below are the instructions for setting up and using the templates.

1. Click the ‘System Options’ menu from the menu bar. (the gear)

2. Select ‘File Locations’ from the left side menu. 

3. Select ‘Document Templates’ from the drop down menu.

4. Click the ‘Add’ Button.

5. Navigate to the templates folder in Kenesto. (\MarsRover\Builds\2024~2025\Library\ UWRT Templates).

   1. Note: If you haven’t been added to Kenesto, navigate to (\downloads\Member Training Material\Templates). This folder can be downloaded from the Mechanical Bootcamp channel on the discord.

6. Click ‘Select Folder’. Windows might ask for admin access to the folder. Allow access.

7. The templates folder is now linked and will be available when making a part.

Using the templates for file creation:

1. Select ‘New…’ from the file menu (Ctrl + N)

2. Click advanced on the pop up screen (bottom left corner).

3. The next screen will have tabs at the top. Select ‘Templates’ to use team templates.

4. Select the appropriate template.

   1. The following templates are used for defining parts. 5052 refers to a part made from 5052 aluminum, 6061 refers to a part made from 6061 aluminum and ABS refers to a 3D printed part. 
      

      
      
      

   2. The follow templates are used for defining drawings. A0, A1, A2, A3 and A4 refer to the sheet size of the drawing. When defining a drawing, you typically want to choose a template where you can apply a reasonable scale (1:2 or 2:1) and fill up majority of the white space within the drawing template. 
      

      
      
      

Please also see this page for a quick overview of additional fields to fill in when defining parts or drawings: Creating a Standard Part / Drawing

If you are having problems with team templates, contact a Mechanical Lead You should also record any bugs noticed in the Template Bug Tracker.

The UW rover robotics team has established a universal naming scheme for all files. This is a mandatory naming convention that must be used for ALL SolidWorks files. The intent of the naming convention is to ensure all files properties are recognizable from the name and to ensure that all files have unique names to avoid SolidWorks errors. The naming scheme for different types of files are shown below. All files from your project must follow this convention before a design review is conducted. Please see these files for the naming convention of UWRT and OTS components.

• File Naming Standard/Number Registration (2021-2022)

• OTS Component Etiquette

Knowledge of manufacturing processes is critical when designing a successful part. "DFM" (design for manufacturing) refers to designing a part for a successful manufacturing operation. This can extend to a number of critical success factors, such as low manufacturing cost, quick production time, high part quality/dimensional accuracy, to name a few. Understanding DFM (as well as design for assembly, design for excellence, etc.) takes time, but a good baseline for DFM is understanding what manufacturing methods our team has available.