This video shows highlights of the 2015 Energy Invitational on UCI’s Campus: The 2016 UCI Energy Invitational will be May 21, 2016 on UCI’s Campus. The course will be along East Peltason Drive between Los Trancos and Bison.
This animation by Yang Liu is inspired by the mechanical Fourier synthesizer described by Dayton Miller, see A 32-element harmonic synthesizer. This mechanical system combines the terms of a Fourier approximation of the batman curve found on Wolfram.com. The video below shows this device draws the batman curve.
This article by Jon Hauenstein with me for SIAM News (Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics) describes research by Mark Plecnik in the computer-aided design of linkages to provide mechanical movement of a bird’s wing. Here is Mark’s video of the his wing flapping mechanism.
See Epsilon at the 2015 LA Auto Show. This former FSAE racecar is now UCI’s research vehicle for an innovative torque-vectoring electric drive system. The body is by a team at the Art Institute of Orange County.
This mechanical system was designed by Yang Liu to trace the shape of a heart. The work is inspired by the mechanical 32-element harmonic synthesizer described by Dayton Miller in the 1916 article in the Journal of the Franklin Institute.
Michael Sutherland and his team at Zennen Engineering designed this full-size folding bicycle that has a dramatically different folding action from current designs. Zennen Engineering has a new concept that they are kind enough to say was inspired by our UCI Folding Structure. This new design rotates the rear wheel support around the bottom bracket, […]
Lawrence Funke and Prof. James Schmiedeler of the University of Notre Dame Locomotion and Biomechanics Lab show that the movement of a morphing linkage through its target profiles can be improved by coordinating actuation of the sub-chains. This was presented at the Mechanisms and Robotics Conference which was part of the 2015 ASME Design Engineering […]
A research team including Profs. GimSong Soh, Kristin Wood and Kevin Otto at Robotics Innovation Lab at the Singapore University of Technology and Design has developed a rolling robot about the size of a baseball. The design and motion planning of this robot, Virgo 2.0, was presented at the Mechanisms and Robotics Conference which was […]
Prof. Andrew Murray and his team at the Design of Innovative Machines Laboratory have developed a dynamic extrusion die that changes shape while in operation. This provides a new capability for rapid manufacture of innovative geometry for metal and plastic bars, channels, hoses, and more. For more information see his laboratory website, University of Dayton […]
Nicholas Bodley sent me to www.maritime.org for information about the MK.1 mechanical computer that he used as a Navy Fire Control Technician during the Korean War. Just the schematic of its operation is a dizzying flowchart. A description of the mechanical components of this computer system can be found in the manual Basic Fire Control […]