Marble Sorting Machine

Role: Designer, Programmer

Objective: The task for this project was to design, build, and program a machine that sorts wood, aluminum, steel, and glass marbles into separate compartments using VEX Robotics and Java. The parameters were efficiency, accuracy, and practicality.

Obstacles: As a team, we overcame obstacles that prevented our machine from working. For example, some sensors did not work well, so we swapped them for others. We reevaluated how each component of the machine was going to operate and determined which materials we were left to work with. Also, we underwent trial and error when programming the sensors to detect the different marbles.

Result: The project worked successfully. There were minor bugs that were not fixed due to time constraints.

Insights: Throughout my time working on this project, I learned how to work according to an engineer's framework and how to approach a given task. Most importantly, I learned how to work in a team and efficiently manage time and work.