All Blog Posts

Red Lines, Part 4MDA Press

Red Lines, Part 4

By Chris McCarthy Leo gets the girls what seems to be a safe…
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Exponential Threat, Part 4MDA Press

Exponential Threat, Part 4

By Chris McCarthy The conclusion of our story finds our heroes…
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Exponential Threat, Part 3MDA Press

Exponential Threat, Part 3

By Chris McCarthy Things go from bad to worse as Trong and…
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Red Lines Knife ep 3MDA Press

Red Lines, Part 3

By Chris McCarthy Leo is in anaphylactic shock. The cop…
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Solar Car PanelsMDA Press

ZotSun: UCI Entry in the Formula Sun Grand Prix

Design of the 2025 Formul Sun Competition Vehicle: The…
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Baja SubsystemsMDA Press

UCI Anteater Baja Racing: Five Months to the Competition

Design of the 2025 Baja Competition Vehicle: The UCI…
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California Shootout 2024MDA Press

UCI Anteater Electric Racing: Six Months to the 2025 Competition

Design of the 2025 EV Competition Vehicle: The UCI Anteater…
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Arduino-USB-CableMDA Press

Getting to Know the Arduino IDE

By Brandon Tsuge, In this post, we will see how to…
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Motor Control HardwareMDA Press

Remote Control of a Brushed DC Motor

By Brandon Tsuge, Introduction In this post, we’ll…
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Arduino Nano UnoMDA Press

How To Get Started With Robotics At Home

By Brandon Tsuge, If you’ve ever wanted to get started…
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Exponential Threat, Part 2MDA Press

Exponential Threat, Part 2

By Chris McCarthy, Edwin lords over the crew until Chase…
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Red Lines Ep 2MDA Press

Red Lines, Part 2

By Chris McCarthy The Police Officer and Leo arrive at the…
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Exponential ThreatMDA Press

Exponential Threat, Part 1

by Chris McCarthy We find our heroes looking for help…
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Six-Oar TrimaranMDA Press

Swimming Robot

Jiaji Li has completed the design, fabrication and testing of…
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Oar-Driven Unmanned Surface Vehicle

Oar-Driven Unmanned Surface Vehicle

This trimaran designed by Jiaji Li has three oars supported by…
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Red Lines CoverMDA Press

Red Lines, Part 1

By Chris McCarthy From his perch in a luxury coffee shop,…
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Stegosaurus walkerMDA Press

Eight Legs, Two Motors and a Lot of Personality

Please take a look at the videos demonstrating these Robot Walkers. Our…
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Jiaji Li's robotic rowboatMDA Press

Jiaji Li’s Robotic Rowboat

Jiaji Li has succeeded in building a prototype Robotic Rowboat.…
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BYU Zoom LectureMDA Press

Quaternions in Kinematics: BYU Lecture

Students at BYU formed a study group advised by Prof. Denise…
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Ruiqi Mao's Panda WalkerMDA Press

Ruiqi Mao’s Panda Walker

This Eight-Legged Walker with two stepper motor drives controlled…
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UCI Vehicle Performance Engineering LabMDA Press

UCI Ready for Racecar Engineering Season

The Vehicle Performance Engineering Lab is clean and ready for…
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Mini StarshipMDA Press

The Mini Starship Delivery Robot

Angelina Licos is a UCI engineering student who seems to have…
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Micro water robot student project

2023 Southern California Robotics Symposium

UCI is hosting SCR 2023: On September 14 and 15 Robotics researchers…
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ARAF EV and BajaMDA Press

2024 UCI Racecar Engineering

Universities across Southern California start soon, and Engineering…
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15 Terrific WalkersMDA Press

15 Terrific Robot Walkers

This Spring quarter 60 students divided into 15 teams to design…
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GNK Power DroidMDA

GNK Steerable Robot Walker

This walking robot was designed and built by Tom Nguyen, Jonathan…
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Ken’s Tank Walker

Ken’s Tank Walker

This robot walker has two drive motors, one for each side. Four…
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Ken’s Perry Walker

Ken’s Perry Walker

This is the latest walker design from Ken Nguyen. His designs…
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A Walking Robot with Four Legs and Two Actuators

A Walking Robot with Four Legs and Two Actuators

This walking robot has four legs and only two actuators. Usually…
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Fall 2022 MAE 245 Halloween Robots

Fall 2022 MAE 245 Halloween Robots

These Halloween robots were delivering candy at UCI on October…
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Kinematics Lecture: Curvature Theory and Walking Robots

Kinematics Lecture: Curvature Theory and Walking Robots

This lecture describes my approach to project-based learning…
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Kinematics Lecture: Design of a Linkage System to a Draw Curve

Kinematics Lecture: Design of a Linkage System to Draw a Curve

Kempe's Universality Theorem states that every algebraic curve…
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Kinematics Lecture: Six-bar and Eight-bar Linkage Synthesis

Kinematics Lecture: Six-bar and Eight-bar Linkage Synthesis

This is my lecture from the 2014 Kinematics Summer School organized…
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Fall 2021 Mechanical Walker Designs

Fall 2021 Mechanical Walker Designs

This video presents the mechanical walker prototypes designed…
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MechGen SP for iPad

MechGen Software Privacy Policy

McCarthy Design Associates has developed a variety of linkage…
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MDA

Design of Mechanical Walking Robots

Now Available on Amazon In this book, we present the detailed…
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2021 UCI Baja Race Team

2021 UCI Baja Race Team

I have seen intercollegiate engineering competitions like the…
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Wing Mechanisms

Wing Mechanisms

Repurposing Jansen's Leg Mechanism: Innovative mechanical…
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MDA Press

21st Century Kinematics: NSF Workshop

I am pleased to provide the presentations from the 2012 National…
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The Bored RobotMDA

The Bored Robot: Controlling Two Drive Motors for a Walking Machine

Brandon Tsuge describes how to assemble the controller for…
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Removing Redundant ConstraintsMDA Press

How to Fix SW Motion Analysis Error: Too Many Redundant Constraints

Kevin Chen,  J. Michael McCarthy,  Shaun Bentley The…
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Six-Legged Mechanical Walkers: Spring 2020 Highlights

Six-Legged Mechanical Walkers: Spring 2020 Highlights

The leg mechanisms of these six-legged walkers use two coordinated…
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Prototype Four-Legged Mechanical Walker

Prototype Four-Legged Mechanical Walker

Kevin Chen and Arwa Tizani designed this four-legged mechanical…
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Four-Legged Mechanical Walkers: Spring 2020 Highlights

Four-Legged Mechanical Walkers: Spring 2020 Highlights

The design of these four-legged walkers relies on Curvature theory…
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Six-Legged Mechanical WalkerMDA

The Design of Mechanical Walkers: Spring 2020 Student Projects

While isolated to slow infections of the Coronavirus, over 60…
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Fall 2019 Mechanical Walker Prototypes

Fall 2019 Mechanical Walker Prototypes

I was pleased to have an enthusiastic group of graduate students…
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Walker Teams 2, 4 and 5MDA

Four-legged Mechanical Walkers: Teams 2, 4 and 5

Here are videos of the designs for the four legged mechanical…
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Mechanical Walker designed by Team 6MDA

Four Legged Mechanical Walker: Teams 1, 3 and 6

Here are videos of the designs for the four legged mechanical…
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Halloween Display 2019

Halloween Display 2019

This video shows how the linkage systems moving spooky decorations…
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More Halloween Linkage Designs

More Halloween Linkage Designs

The Halloween decorations designed by project teams 4, 5 and…
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Halloween Design Project

Halloween Design Project

Students in my MAE 245 Advanced Kinematic Synthesis class have…
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Walker Group 6

Mechanical Walker Project Animations: Spring 2019

Here are the solid models of some of the walkers designed by…
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Leg Mechanism for a Mechanical Walker

Leg Mechanism for a Mechanical Walker

This is an animation of the leg mechanism for a mechanical walker…
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Leg MechanismJMM

Construction of a Leg Mechanism

This is a series of four videos that show how to: Specify…
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Construction for Three-Position Synthesis of a Four-Bar Linkage

Construction for Three-Position Synthesis of a Four-Bar Linkage

The graphical construction of a four-bar function generator that…
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Five Position Synthesis of Four-bar Function Generators

Five Position Synthesis of Four-bar Function Generators

Our MechGen FG iOS application provides five position synthesis…
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Construction for Two-Position Synthesis of a Four-Bar Linkage

Construction for Two-Position Synthesis of a Four-Bar Linkage

The graphical construction of a four-bar linkage that coordinates…
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Construction of a Skew Pantograph Leg Mechanism

Construction of a Skew Pantograph Leg Mechanism

This video adds a skew pantograph to a four-bar linkage in order…
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Construction of Klann-style Leg Mechanism

Construction of Klann-style Leg Mechanism

In this video, we start with a four-bar linkage and coupler curve…
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Construction of a Translating Link for a Leg Mechanism

Construction of a Translating Link for a Leg Mechanism

This video starts with a four-bar linkage with a coupler curve…
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Construction of the Cubic of Stationary Curvature for a Four-bar Linkage

Construction of the Cubic of Stationary Curvature for a Four-bar Linkage

This video shows the construction of the cubic of stationary…
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Construction of the Inflection Circle for a Four-Bar Linkage

Construction of the Inflection Circle for a Four-Bar Linkage

This tutorial constructs the inflection circle for a particular…
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Construction of the Canonical Coordinate System for a Four-Bar Linkage

Construction of the Canonical Coordinate System for a Four-Bar Linkage

This tutorial shows how to use Geogebra to construct the canonical…
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Walking Robot Student Project

Walking Machine Class Projects: Ohio State ME 5751

Prof Haijun Su at Ohio State University had his students design…
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Sphinx and Sphere VR and the History of Kinematic Synthesis

Sphinx and Sphere VR and the History of Kinematic Synthesis

Our Sphinx software was the first computer-aided design system…
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LINCAGES

LINCAGES and the History of Kinematic Synthesis

The linkage design software developed by Art Erdman and his…
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KinSyn and the History of Kinematic Synthesis

KinSyn and the History of Kinematic Synthesis

My first experience with computer based kinematic synthesis was…
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DIYWalkers

Strider and TrotBot at DIYWalkers.com

Just after I published my book Kinematic Synthesis of Mechanisms…
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About Geogebra PageJMM

About Geogebra-Kinematic Synthesis of Mechanisms

The animated four-bar linkage FHJD is constructed using dimensions…
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Chapter 6 Title PageJMM

Chapter 6 Animations-Kinematic Synthesis of Mechanisms

Here are the eight Movies in Chapter 6 of Kinematic Synthesis…
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Chapter 5 Title PageJMM

Chapter 5 Animations-Kinematic Synthesis of Mechanisms

Here are the four Movies in Chapter 5 of Kinematic Synthesis…
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Chapter 4 Title PageJMM

Chapter 4 Animations-Kinematic Synthesis of Mechanisms

Here are the four Movies in Chapter 4 of Kinematic Synthesis…
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Chapter 3 Title PageJMM

Chapter 3 Animations-Kinematic Synthesis of Mechanisms

Here are the four Movies in Chapter 3 of Kinematic Synthesis…
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Chapter 2 Title PageJMM

Chapter 2 Animations-Kinematic Synthesis of Mechanisms

Here are the six Movies in Chapter 2 of Kinematic Synthesis of…
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Chapter 1 Title PageJMM

Chapter 1 Animations-Kinematic Synthesis of Mechanisms

Here are the three Movies in Chapter 1 of Kinematic Synthesis…
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Kinematic Synthesis of Mechanisms Title Video

Kinematic Synthesis of Mechanisms Title Video

This animation was prepared by Yang Liu of a walking machine…
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Kinematic Synthesis of MechanismsJMM

Kinematic Synthesis of Mechanisms: A project based approach

This book is an introduction to the geometric theory used to…
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Rybos-Kelvin CodaRA White and MD101

Chop Wood Carry Water by R. A. White

R. A. White is the author of Chop Wood Carry Water and Superluminal.…
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2013 Energy Invitational

Smitty’s Video Lectures on Racecar Engineering

Here are Smitty's video lectures on Introduction to Racecar…
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Chop Wood Carry Water on Amazon

Chop Wood Carry Water on Amazon.com

Chop Wood Carry Water is now available on Amazon.com. Please…
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ITTK on Amazon.com

Introduction to Theoretical Kinematics, paperback on Amazon.com

I am pleased to report that a paperback version my book Introduction…
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GraspLab SeminarGraspLab Seminar

Design of Linkages to Draw Curves, GRASPLab Seminar

On May 8, 2018, I was pleased to give a seminar at the University…
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2018 Phantom FSAE AutocrossMDA

2018 UCI Phantom FSAE Autocross

This video captures the first autocross run by Matt Clark at…
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Itunes Chop Wood Carry WaterMDA

Chop Wood Carry Water on iTunes

R. W. Frost's story Chop Wood Carry Water is now available on…
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Chop Wood Carry Water, Full Length

This is a combination of the 10 episodes of R. W. Frost's Chop…
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Fab 03 Hand tools

Smitty’s Fabrication Training Videos

This series of training videos were prepared by Robert "Smitty"…
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SuperluminalMDA

Superluminal: Chapters 1-5

Superluminal, the new book by R. W. Frost, follows David Minor’s…
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Thank you

Intro to Racecar Engineering: 20 Thank You

Smitty and Professor McCarthy say thank you!   ht…
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Intro to Racecar Engineering:19 Smitty's Library

Intro to Racecar Engineering: 19 Smitty’s Library

Smitty shares his library of resources.   https:/…
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Intro to Racecar Engineering: 18 Team Do's

Intro to Racecar Engineering: 18 Team Do’s

Smitty shares team do's.   https://youtu.be/GonvV…
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Intro to Racecar Engineering: 17 Team Don'ts

Intro to Racecar Engineering: 17 Team Don’ts

Smitty shares team don'ts.   https://youtu.be/fn8cdXI…
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Intro to Racecar Engineering: 16 Performance Ideals

Intro to Racecar Engineering: 16 Performance Ideals

Smitty discusses performance ideals and overall principles such…
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Intro to Racecar Engineering: 15 Electronic Fuel Injection

Intro to Racecar Engineering: 15 Electronic Fuel Injection Systems

Smitty shares information regarding electronic fuel injection…
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Intro to Racecar Engineering 14

Intro to Racecar Engineering: 14 CV Transmissions

Smitty describes continuously variable transmissions. This is…
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Intro to Racecar Engineering: 13 Tires

Intro to Racecar Engineering: 13 Tires

Smitty shares tips of the trade regarding tires.   …
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Intro to Racecar Engineering: 12

Intro to Racecar Engineering: 12 Toe and Camber

Smitty describes the importance of the toe and camber. ht…
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King Pin Inclination

Intro to Racecar Engineering: 11 King Pin Inclination

Smitty describes king pin inclination. This is the eleventh in…
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Superluminal Chapter 5

Superluminal Chapter 5

David finds Qishu to be more than he expected in Chapter 5 of…
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Rectilinear Six-bar

Rectilinear Six-Bar (Candy Coating Linkage)

Jeff Glabe designed this six-bar linkage to move through six…
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Introduction to Linkage Synthesis

This introduction to the graduate course ME 322 Kinematic…
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