As part of the TEPS program, MSc Candidate Elisabeth Smith has spent her summer working at local space engineering firm MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates, better known to us as MDA. She relates her experiences here.
By Elisabeth Smith
This past May, I started a part-time
internship with engineering company MacDonald, Dettwiler
& and Associates (or, MDA for short) in Brampton,
Ontario – located not too far from York University. MDA
was founded in 1969 by John S. MacDonald and Werner
Dettwiler, and is likely best known for their development
of communications and robotics systems. Perhaps their
best-known product is the Canadarm, the robotic arm
present on both the International Space Station and the
Space Shuttles that is used to grab and move payloads from
different spacecraft, especially for the assembly of the
ISS. It also has cameras on it that allows for the
inspection of spacecraft. After the Columbia Space
Shuttle disaster in 2003, this became a very important
step in future manned space missions.
Being able to work for such a fantastic
company with such an incredible position in the space
industry was a very exciting prospect indeed. I would be
helping develop a robotic arm that will be used in
aircraft manufacturing – a very good fit for me, given my
prior internship experience with business jet manufacturer
Gulfstream Aerospace. I have always dreamed of working in
the space industry, and being at MDA is a great way to
achieve that goal. I am also very interested in robotics,
and being able to combine my interests in space and
robotics was perfect.
My work has been very exciting. I work
directly with the robot, with responsibilities such as
determining operation areas for the robot to function
within, and actually operating the robot, in order to test
different parameters to find the optimal settings for its
use. Of course, my very first task was to learn to operate
the robot. I learned to do this using two different
methods – using a text based user interface where I type
in specific commands, and using the graphical user
interface program (GUI) that the team developed for this
robot. Learning both systems offered valuable experience.
The text based program helped sharpen some of my
programming skills. The GUI is a much simpler program –
which is exactly what we want. This robot will likely be
operated by users who do not have extensive programming
experience, so learning to develop a simple program that
is very user-friendly is also great. In the future, this
will hopefully give me a new perspective when working on
projects to be sure that the product is easy to use for
anyone. Being able to work directly with the robot has
been a great opportunity. I have always loved being able
to work with something hands-on, rather than being
confined to just a computer and desk. Watching the robot
come to life and perform its task is always a pleasure.
The project is also exciting as it is
very new. In aircraft manufacturing, much of the work is
done by hand, rather than with robots as it is in the
automotive industry. Having a robot doing these tasks
allows for greater consistency in quality, which in turn
reduces costs associated with reworking faulty items, or
items that do not meet certain requirements. Ergonomics
and employee safety is also a very important consideration
– while the task this robot performs isn’t very dangerous
to employees, the task, when done by hand, has a higher
risk of inducing a repetitive stress injury, a type of
musculoskeletal injury that occurs when a certain motion
is repeated many times. Introducing a new robot to the
industry is very exciting, but also hopefully very
helpful.
The culture at MDA is a very good fit
for me – very relaxed, but with just the right amount of
professionalism. The employees are very friendly. The
cafeteria at the Brampton location is wonderful as well.
The menu is always very diverse and the food tastes great
– I quickly began to look forward to Curry Wednesdays! My
fellow interns are also great. At lunch time, the interns
always sit together, where we discuss everything from our
projects at MDA, to current events and sports. They all
come from various fields of study and different
universities, so conversing with them is always
interesting.
Overall, this internship has been
great. I’ve learned valuable lessons, including technical
information about the design and operation of robots, as
well as customer satisfaction knowledge, such as the
importance of designing a robot that cost-efficient and
easy to use. The experiences gained from this internship
will hopefully serve me well in my future endeavors, and
lead to a very exciting career.
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