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 SP is used to design a suspension.
Kaustubh and Mark
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 is drama, thrills, disappointment, and amazing engineering team effort under high pressure, but I have no idea how this might translate to a video series.
MIT has regularly generated videos following various teams in the 2.007 design course. There are similar videos for the CalTech ME72 design competition. However, in both cases there is much less on the line.
FSAE race teams can involve large numbers of young engineering students committed to several years of effort. It deserves better exposure, but seems a difficult subject.
2015 EIVI Race Teams
2015 EIVI Race Cars
The Race Teams at the 2015 Energy Invitational, May 24, 2015 on UCI’s Campus.
Here are the organization layouts for the 2015 Energy Invitational.
2015 EIVI Heat Schedule
This is the list of participants and the heat schedule for our 2015 Energy Invitational on UCI’s Campus. Please come by and see what these student race teams can do.
Truman Studio
Truman Pollard’s wheelchair seat design which repurposes race car seating is an inspiration. The engineering effort needed for our racecar project spans so many different activities any one of which can be the foundation for a business. Find more information at the link Truman Studio
This is the participant patch for the 2015 Energy Invitational on May 24, 2015 on UCI’s Campus.
Energy Invitational
This is the participant patch for the 2015 Rescue Robotics Challenge on May 31, 2015
Rescue Robotics
An outcome of Mark Plecnik’s research on the kinematic synthesis of six-bar linkages is a variety of designs for the leg mechanisms of small walking machines.
We hope to build this walker over the summer. It has one drive motor on each side:
This is my favorite because it couples the legs on one side with a pantograph linkage. The leg joints are living hinges. and it seems this the entire leg system can be cut from a single sheet of plastic:
This is a design study for a walker with eight legs on one side, 16 total:
MechGen Suspension