Robotics: Integrated Systems Design

• Today– How to work in a

multidisciplinary team– Form teams– First Team Assignment

• Monday– MLK Day

• Wednesday– Control & Kinematics

What is a Team?• Two or more people who work together to

achieve a common purpose– What will be your team’s common purpose in

this class?1. To perform the lab assignments

2. To design and implement a robot for the Urban Search & Rescue Project

3. To learn about each other areas from one another

How do you recognize a team when you see one?

• Two or more people who are interacting with each other, are interdependent– Otherwise you are a group – Or a party if there is a beer.

Team Process

• How are decisions made?• How are conflicts resolved?• Team Roles

– CTO: Chief Technical Officers (Facilitator)• Keeps the team focused and productive

– Scribe• Documents the activities and decisions of the team

– Rat Hole Watcher• Makes sure the team doesn’t get too far off topic

Running an Effective Team Meeting • Meetings must have a detailed agenda

– What topics are to be covered, what activities will be performed

– Agendas are sent out in advance of the meeting• Team Roles Assigned

– CTO, Scribe, Rate Hole Watcher• Document the Meeting

– What was discussed or accomplished– What are the “action items” and who is responsible for

each one.– Provides a group memory– Reminds individuals the assignments they need to

complete

Team Meeting Exercise • Get into your assigned teams• Run a 15-minute team meeting

– Assign roles, use the meeting minutes template– Here is the meeting agenda:

1. Introduce each other and trade contact information2. Discuss the characteristics of a good team

member. Come to a consensus of the top 5 characteristics in order of priority.

3. Beginning next class period your team will sit together in class, come to a consensus of where your team will sit.

4. Every team must have a team name. Decide on your team name.

Review Lists

My list of top 5 “Do Be’s”

• Completes assignments on time

• Communicates

• Uses constructive criticism rather than destructive criticism.

• Is on time for meetings

• Sense of humor

Puzzle Game

Form Teams

Solve the given jigsaw puzzle without looking at the picture

What did we observe?

• It is difficult to solve the puzzle without having a clear picture of what the objective is

• Team members automatically assumed certain roles based on their personality types and styles

Creativite Thinking

• Notes from: “A Whack on the Side of the Head: How you can be more creative”, R. von Oech, U.S. Games Systems, Inc., 1990

• Creative Thinking is looking at the same thing as everyone else and thinking something different.

– Shifting the context in which you think about something– Requires an attitude that allows you to search for ideas and

manipulate your knowledge and experience

Mental Locks/Mental Blocks• Mental Locks are attitudes that lock our thinking into the

status quo and keep us thinking “more of the same”.

1. Habitual Thinking – Doing things or thinking about things in way that is out of habit. Habit reduces cognitive load but can keep your thinking in a rut.

2. The Right Answer – Thinking that there must be only one right answer or the best answer. By being stuck looking for “the right answer” we tend to discard potentially good solutions before we have a chance to explore them.

3. Making unwarranted assumptions – Making assumptions about the problem that are unfounded or unnecessary.

Mental Locks/Mental Blocks5. Play is Frivolous – Business thinking leads us to believe that

the bottom-line is about productivity, so any activity that is not directly productive must be unproductive. Sometimes it helps to look at ideas in playful, humorous, or imaginative ways. These can possibly lead to new insights that can potentially be productive down the line.

6. I’m Not Creative – Self-fulfilling prophecy. Give yourself a license to be creative.

Creative Thinking Methods

Vertical Thinking– Systems and sub-systems

• Lateral Thinking– recognize ideas that polarize

perception of a problem– searching for different ways of

looking at things– use of chance to encourage

other ideas.

Example• An Electric Plant in Great Lakes area is having

problems with zebra mussels. The mussels are forming a thick layer inside the cooling intake and reducing flow rate resulting serious problems in the plant. Since they are not a native species to the area there are no natural predators.

How can we reduce the impact of the mussels?Also, how can they be economically dispose of

once they are removed?

Team Assignment

• Lab 1: Mouse Trap!– Intro to Robot Kit– Working as a Team– Thinking Creatively

• http://www.cs.siue.edu/robotics/integratedsystems/

Yeah Team!

1. Raymond Millen, James Andrews, Josef Gabriel, Aaron Paul

2. Mark Williams, Jack Sykut, Matt Hussey

3. Matt Bringer, Stephen Chadwick, Devon Berry

4. Peter Vas, Chad Bruza, Britian Oates