Day 10: (Thu Sep 24, Week 5) Maquette Engineering

Notes for 2026-09-24.

New Assignments

New assignment, due Thu Oct 1: Exercise: Maquette Part 2: Prototype. Please submit results to Assignment 8 Shared Folder and bring the device to class for live demonstration.

Agenda

  1. Discuss new assignment

  2. Discuss technical requirements

  3. Individual consultation

System Elements

All the machines we build share common questions. For this maquette, I’m hoping to minimize needs for computation. In general, we’ll need to explore the following topics as-needed to fill knowledge gaps:

  • structural design

  • joint design

  • actuator selection and mounting

  • power and sensor electronics

  • embedded computation and software

  • mobile power

General Technical Assessments

  1. Many projects will require some essential IDeATe design technique.

    • laser-cut flat-pack structure and joinery design

    • pivot and bearing structure

    • small DC motor mounting and hub components

    • hobby servo mounting and motion transmission

    • design for the 3D printer

    • some of these topics are addressed at Creative Kinetic Systems F26 text/mechanism/

  2. I’m hoping the maquette does not need any microcontroller or software, but:

  3. Several projects will require some components outside the regular lab stock, this will be individually discussed.

Project Technical Assessments

  1. Crawl Box

    • linkage synthesis design (possibly https://motiongen.io/)

    • body friction

    • serial-chain structure

    • pivot design

  2. Omni Wheel Party

    • omni vs mecanum wheel

    • motor mounting

    • simple test strategy (without computation)

  3. Jumping Pendulum

    • motor scale and selection

    • pivot design

    • simple test strategy (without computation)

  4. Critter

    • motor scale and selection

    • 3D printing design

  5. Omni Wheel Whisker

    • recommended broomstick puppeting strategy

    • whisker scale and aterial selection

  6. Breathing Wheel

    • linear joint design

    • linear actuator application (Lab Part 2520)

    • cardboard or plywood joinery

  7. Arm Cart

    • choosing a simplified test

  8. Toothbrush

    • motor scale and selection

    • bristle material

  9. Big Pill

    • motor scale and selection

    • 2D simplification

    • lightweight structure design

  10. Undulating Screw Leg

    • motor scale and selection

    • structure and pivot design

    • simple test strategy (without computation)

  11. Locomoting Hand

    • servo scale and selection

    • tendon material selection

    • pivot design

    • 3D printing design