Collegiate Formula racing around the world
Mathias Kastens maintains a site that closely tracks student formula teams, design activities and competition details around the world. Access it at the link:
http://www.fstotal.com
Stackable fold-up emergency shelter
Mikhail Zhuk animated this design concept for an eight-bar linkage to deploy a collapsible emergency structure. A physical prototype is under development. (UCI Robotics and Automation Lab)
Elementary Robotics
The basic properties of robots can developed by studying planar serial chains. Select this link for my notes on elementary robotics:
http://synthetica.eng.uci.edu/~mccarthy/mechanicaldesign101/McCarthyNotes-5.pdf
Elementary Robotics
CMU’s Introduction to Mechanisms
Yi Zhang, Susan Finger and Stephannie Behrens have prepared an on-line introduction to mechanisms consisting of eight chapters and almost 100 figures. Access it at the link:
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~rapidproto/mechanisms/tablecontents.html
Four-bar linkage analysis: Slider-crank
The slider-crank is an important mechanism with a wide range of applications. Here are my notes on its kinematic analysis.
http://synthetica.eng.uci.edu/~mccarthy/mechanicaldesign101/McCarthyNotes-3.pdf
Slider-crank analysis
Four-bar linkage analysis: 4R quadrilateral
The four-bar linkage is a basic machine component. It comes in two primary forms the 4R quadridlateral and the slider-crank. Here are my notes for the analysis of the 4R quadrilateral.
http://synthetica.eng.uci.edu/~mccarthy/mechanicaldesign101/McCarthyNotes-2.pdf
Four-bar linkage analysis
DC motor torque and power
A copy of my notes on DC motor torque and power can be downloaded at the link:
http://synthetica.eng.uci.edu/~mccarthy/mechanicaldesign101/McCarthyNotes-1.pdf
Motor Torque and Power
DC motor basics
The basic principles of DC motors are presented by Joe Wolfe of the University of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia) at the link:
http://www.animations.physics.unsw.edu.au/jw/electricmotors.html
Phyclips from UNSW
Northwestern University (Chicago, Illinois) presents the basics of a DC motor in the Wiki page:
http://hades.mech.northwestern.edu/wiki/index.php/Brushed_DC_Motor_Theory
Northwestern University Wiki page
Mechanical Properties of Steel
The MatWeb site provides detailed information about materials such as the tensile strength of various compositions of steel.
MatWeb: Material Property Data
For example the search “low carbon steel” results in the list of links to information:
http://www.matweb.com/search/QuickText.aspx?SearchText=low%20carbon%20steel
Unified Numbering System for Materials
There are a variety of numbering systems for materials such as steel. The unified numbering system (UNS) uses a letter to designate a material category followed by five numbers constructed from the existing materials designations to coordinate all of these numbering systems.
The unified numbering system (UNS) is described in Wikipedia at the link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_numbering_system
Some of the category letters for steel are:
- G for AISI/SAE carbon and alloy steels;
- S for stainless steels; and
- T for tool steels.
The complete listing of categories can be found in the Engineer’s Handbook:
http://www.engineershandbook.com/Tables/uns.htm
Generally, the standard designation is inserted after the letter defining the material category. For example, AISI/SAE 1018 carbon steel has the UNS designation G10180.
The AISI-SAE steel alloy designation system is listed in the Engineer’s Handbook table:
http://www.engineershandbook.com/Tables/carbonsteelalloys.htm
Also see Wikipedia at the link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAE_steel_grades