Cookie Topper

This project was completed by Sean Healy and I as a part of our Project Lead the Way class, Principles of Engineering. In this assignment we were tasked with topping a Chips Ahoy cookie (because they need some extra flavor) with whip cream from a can. We were supplied a VEX Robotics kit and ROBOTC program (but it seems no one knows what those are). Probably the most challenging design aspect was to try and actually press the nozzle to dispense the whip cream. We did eventually come up with a rack and pinion method that worked decently well. You can see in the video below that what we needed was a way to separate the whip cream from the can so it did not hang. The rest of the device is pretty simple with motors moving the conveyor belt which passes the cookies under a color sensor. We did end up having to use a color sensor rather than a distance sensor due to the "bounciness" of the conveyor belt.

I like to keep this project up because it was honestly one of my first notable engineering projects and it brings back good memories of eating lots of whip cream topped cookies.