Example Mechatronics Projects

(Interested in participating in a mechatronics project?
See mechatronics curriculum at UW)

Piezoelectric Rotational Motor: Roozbeh Chavoshian, David Keller, Richard Morris, Alex Nameroff, Timothy Reed designed and built a piezoelectric rotational motor. Each piezo makes micron-sized steps -- these steps are accumulated to achieve large-scale movement. This project was part of ME 495 (Mechatronics)  Capstone Design Project SPRING 2001

 Video of piezomotor in operation

      Autonomous Submarine Project: Jason Ginn, Adam Robinson and Joe Schroeder  developed automatic depth and pitch control to aid Future Human Powered Submarine Teams to achieve and maintain a desired depth. Challenges included the modeling of the nonlinear submarine dynamics and the choice of adequate number (and type) of sensors and actuators. They designed and built a prototype submarine and successfully demonstrated the effectiveness of their controller using an HC11 microcontroller.  This project was part of ME495 (Mechatronics)  Capstone Design Projects, SPRING 2005

  Video of Initial Test  
  Video of Depth Control

Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) Actuated Robotic Arm: Moses Chong, Binh Huynh, Patrick McConnell, James McDonnell, Levi Mulkey, Piandy Piandy, and Matthew Spencer designed a shape-memory-alloy (SMA) rotary actuator for a robotic arm. Additionally, an SMA actuated hand was designed to grasp objects such as a can (shown in the video). Challenges included the modeling of the nonlinear hysteretic behavior of the SMA and the design of a controller for the nonlinear system. This project was part of ME495 (Mechatronics)  Capstone Design Projects, SPRING 2005

Video of Final Test

       SMA Robot:  Ryan Goding, Mohd Ikmal Ismail and Reese Allen built and tested a shape memory alloy (SMA) based bio-mimetic robot. This insect-like robot had six legs; each leg motion was controlled with SMA wires. The finished robot fitted within a size restriction of 6” X 6” X 6”.   This project was part of ME 495 (Mechatronics)  Capstone Design Projects, SPRING 2007

    Video of robot moving

      Piezoelectric Robot: Robert David Oylear and Amar Seta built and tested a piezoelectric bio-mimetic robot. This insect-like robot had six legs; each leg motion was generated using bimorph piezoelectric actuators, which were driven by asymmetric input waves. The finished robot fitted within a size restriction of 6” X 6” X 6”. Although, each actuator’s motion was only in the micron range, the robot successfully achieved a speed of 1.8 cm/s. This project was part of ME 495 (Mechatronics)  Capstone Design Projects, SPRING 2007

           Video of initial test of robot
    Video of final robot test with six legs

     SMA Actuated Robotic Fingers: Alexander Lee and Ian Cairns built and tested SMA-based bio-mimetic fingers. This was the summer project of these high school to-be-seniors in 2007. They based the design on human muscles; a battery was used supply power to actuate (heat) the SMA wires to bend the fingers and a spring was used to extend these fingers back.

        Video of Preliminary Test
  Video of Final Presentation
  Power Point Presentation

Details of  Undergraduate Design/Research

      U. of Washington

·    ME395/ME495    Winter 2001      Student Group: Piezo Motor Mechanical Design (with Prof Labossiere)

·    ME495                 Spring 2001       Mechatronics Student Group: Piezo Motor Design  (with Prof Garbini and Prof Labossiere)

The piezo-actuated motor, for high-precision nano-scale rotary positioning, was designed and controlled by undergraduate students as part of the capstone-level design class under the Mechatronics thread.

·    ME395                 Winter 2002      Pendulum Impact Tester for Prosthesis Feet  (Prof Labossiere was the Lead)

·    ME498                 Winter 2003      Supervised Three Student Groups working towards their capstone-level Mechatronics design project

                                                             (This is a one credit class.)

·    ME495M             Spring 2003       Supervised Three Student Groups working on the        

                                                            Capstone-level Mechatronics design project.

(1)   Active Vibration Suppression for Tall Buildings      
(Flexible Structures)

(2)   Design and Control of Dual Stage Actuators

(3)   Control of High-Speed Scanners    

Design and Control of Dual Stage Actuators: Students designed, built, and controlled this dual-stage piezo-positioning system. This dual-stage system integrates a relatively large piezo to achieve large range (although the bandwidth and precision is low) with a smaller piezo with high bandwidth and high precision (although with low range). The integrated system achieves precision, large-range positioning with high bandwidth.

Active Vibration Suppression: Students in the Mechatronics thread designed and, built a flexible structure that simulated the vibrations of the Yokohama Landmark Tower (a 70-story, 296-meter building in Yokohama City), which was the tallest building in Japan as of 1998. An Active Mass Damper system was added to the top of the flexible structure and the students built a control system to reduce the structural vibration.  

Control of High-Speed Scanners : As part of the Mechatronics project, students built an optical sensor (with nanoscale resolution) for measuring and controlling vibrations in a piezo-scanner during high-speed positioning. The sensor was calibrated with an inductive sensor and a controller was designed, built and tested for vibration suppression. 

·    NSF REU             Sum, Fall 03      Supervised Aaron Hampshire, a Junior in mechanical engineering. He is interfacing a flexible structure experiment    to a PC; this experiment was used in ME471 class.                       

·    ME498                 Winter 2005      Supervised Three Student Groups working towards their capstone-level Mechatronics design project

                                                            (This is a one credit class.)

·    ME495M             Spring 2005       Supervised Three Student Groups working on the Capstone-level Mechatronics design project.
(1) Boom Crane Dynamics and Control
(2) Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) Actuated Robotic Arm
(3) Automatic Depth and Pitch Control for Submarine

 Boom Crane Dynamics and Control: As part of the Mechatronics project, students built a prototype crane, modeled the system, designed and implemented a controller, and tested its ability to reduce the settling time. Data acquisition and evaluation were performed with a microcontroller.

SMA Rotational Joint. This project designed and tested a smart-material-alloy-based rotary actuator. The actuator was used to control the position of a robotic arm to simulate human motion – with 90 degrees of rotation and 0.1 Hz.  A prototype was designed and successfully tested.  

Depth Control for Submarine. The mechatronics students designed an automatic depth controller for  a submarine. The goal was to aid the Human Powered Submarine Race Team at the University of Washington – it is challenging to maintain a constant depth with the human powered submarine. The depth tends to oscillate due to possible driver over-correction and thus degrades performance. The team successfully designed and implemented the depth controller on a prototype submarine.

·    ME495M             Spring 2007       Supervised Three Student Groups working on the Capstone-level Mechatronics design project.
(1) Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) Actuated Insect-Robot
(2) Miniature Mobile Piezoelectric Robot

                                                            (3) XM-Satellite-Radio, Orientation Controller for Alaskan Fisherman

Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) Actuated Insect-Robot. This project built and tested a shape memory alloy (SMA) based bio-mimetic robot. This insect-like robot had six legs; each leg motion was controlled with SMA wires. The finished robot fitted within a size restriction of 6” X 6” X 6”.

Maintaining XM Satellite Radio Orientation in Alaska: This project built and tested a prototype system for fishermen in Alaska that orients the XM Satellite radio pointed to the south (even as the boat’s orientation changes) for good reception. The team built and tested an analog control system, which integrated an analog compass sensor to maintain the southward orientation even as the base (that holds the system) changes orientation.

Piezoelectric Robot. This project built and tested a piezoelectric bio-mimetic robot. This insect-like robot had six legs; each leg motion was generated using bimorph piezoelectric actuators, which were driven by asymmetric input waves. The finished robot fitted within a size restriction of 6” X 6” X 6”. Although, each actuator’s motion was only in the micron range, the robot successfully achieved a speed of 1.8 cm/s.

        Other robotics projects

        Acknowledgement: Projects were partially support by grants from the National Science Foundation.

Interested in participating in a mechatronics project?
See mechatronics curriculum at UW