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 […]
I found this book to be remarkable. First, because the initial chapters resonate so clearly with my own experiences over the past 10 years guiding large student teams through project-based learning to complete the design, manufacturing, testing and eventual participation in intercollegiate race car engineering competitions. Initially, I thought what was required was technical expertise […]
MechGen Suspension is an iPad application that calculates the upper control arm of an independent suspension to provide a desired set of camber angles and wheel travel values for a specified lower control arm. The algorithm is an application of five-position synthesis of a four-bar linkage. Please see the video below to see how MechGen […]
Mark Plecnik and Kaustubh Sonawale both successfully presented their dissertation defense this week. Their kinematics research has resulted new computational procedures that have made possible many new designs. See Mark’s web page and Kaustubh’s web page for examples of interesting devices that are the result of their research.
Ian Campbell and Jerry Magana are a director/producer team from the Los Angeles area (also see Media1044.com), who are hoping to highlight the collegiate engineering design challenges involved in Racecar Engineering, specifically the Collegiate Formula SAE events. This project is called RaceLab.tv. Having worked with student race teams for almost 15 years, I know there […]
The Race Teams at the 2015 Energy Invitational, May 24, 2015 on UCI’s Campus.