The Bobamabob, V1

It's a robot that makes boba! You can find a video of it in action at https://bobamabob.com/.

It took about 6 months of outside-of-job time, starting from almost no knowledge of how to put a robot together. Plus, we kind of built two copies of this robot since my friend and I live in different states.

Our original idea of a hamburger-making robot was "too hard." That didn't make this boba robot any easier. Not sure why all our ideas were food robots.

I learned:

how to make a gantry
- timing belt and stepper motor
controlling stepper motors
controlling a gantry with pathfinding firmware
using aluminum extrusions
cutting aluminum extrusions with a mitre saw
pumping and managing liquids in a robot
designing numerous custom parts using FreeCAD and 3D printing the parts out
using epoxy
learning about food safety
how to network with people
talking to other people about robotics
setting up and managing a booth at a convention
talking to people nonstop at a convention is very tiring and tiring to the voice. if you find yourself in this situation, continuously drink water!!
the environment you build something in greatly contributes to your motivation to work on that thing
connecting with people on linkedin and networking
working with different DC voltages
debugging power supply errors caused by mysterious short circuits (thanks michael! you know who you are)
how to make a big sugary, squelchy mess inside of a robot