Dice Roller

Date: October 2024 - November 2024

Role: Mechanical Systems Coordinator, Team Member

Working with a team of three other peers, we created a dice rolling mechanism. The system allows users to choose which dice they would like to be rolled among three options at a time and will then pick the dice up, roll it, retrieve it, and place it back in its original position so it can be rolled again. 80/20 aluminum bars were used as the structure of the machine while custom 3D printed components were designed in SolidWorks to hold the pulleys and grip the dice. We also created a custom transmission for the gripping mechanism which used Lego gears and axles connected to a small stepper motor to grab the dice. The system was coded in the Arduino IDE to allow for users to easily interact with the machine while ensuring repeatability. After testing all of the parameters of the system, iterating on the designs, and making some slight changes to a funneling system in the bowl where the dice were rolled, the machine was able to pick up, roll, retrieve, and return the selected die as intended, giving users a fun way to play their next board game without the hassle of having to constantly move dice around and roll them. A large part of what made our project successful was our team working very well together. While my largest contribution was envisioning how the system would function mechanically by designing the pulley systems and corresponding carriages, our team was able to manage our priorities, efficiently divide up tasks, and effectively communicate with each other, leading to a device which accomplished the goals we had set for ourselves.