Ellen
In my second year, I had to make a LEGO Midstorms robot. What I have learned
there: robots don´t ever do what you want them to do.
This year, I heard that I had to make a robot again, now without the parts
of LEGO Mindstorms. I was really not looking forward to it.
As we started working, it became clear that it was not too awful. After a few tests, learning assembly and choosing the right lab-DJ, I discovered
that I might even like mechatronics.
I also saw that the biggest problems with building the LEGO robot, had been
the fact that I didn´t really understand the working of the sensors in my
second year. During this project, everything was made by ourselves. There were no "black
box" components so if there was a problem, at least we understood why.
I have learned very much and against all my expectations, I even had fun.
Did I change my opinion about robots? No, I just nuanced it.
Robots don´t ever do what you want them to do. They do what you ask them to
do.
Mart
Making a football robot was very enlightening as a multi-disciplinary
(mechatronics) project. I learned a bit of assembler programming and
mainly designing the electronics, making the PCB's and all the other
practical aspects (like searching for errors and fixing them up)
around the electronics. After several long days in the mechanics lab
(the last week we almost lived there) I'm satisfied with the results,
although not every functionality works as we had hoped for. I'd like
to give thanks to Jean-Paul (the electronics dealer) and Victor for their patience and help.
Louka
For myself I think the project was a great way of learning to accept the limitations of theoretical thinking. On a certain moment you have to make the switch and just do it, see where you get, and use that knowledge to do it better the next try. Nonetheless I found it most enjoyable when the robot did something right based on theoretical thinking ;).
Some moments of tiredness and stress were quite hard towards the end, but the moments of singing 'Dos cerveza's' in the lab when we reached a new milestone will always stay as a great memory of teamwork. My own team as well as the others prooved that work and stress can live together with fun and laughter.
Last but not least I would like to thank Jean-Paul and Victor for their time and guidance!
Thomas
The mechatronics project was the first project at the university that really made us start 'from scratch'. In the beginning everything went very slow: Okey, we have a microcontroller, how do we program that? We first learned the basics of assembler and we became euphoric when we could turn a led on and off with a switch. As time went by everything went faster and faster, we didn't make less mistakes in our work, but we found and solved them quicker.
I realized that robotics is one of the most multidisciplinary domains in engineering and therefore building this football robot was quite an interesting thing to do, although it was not that easy. We came in touch with a lot of practical aspects of the engineering job: Electronics, mechanics, programming, teamwork, etc.
Even though the robot didn't fully work in the end, I had an accomplished feeling at the end of the project.
My teammates already thanked Victor and Jean-Paul for their help and I can only agree with them! | 
