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 --   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. Issues included the modeling of the nonlinear submarine dynamics and the choice of adequate number (and type) of sensors and actuators. The team 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. 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.  This project was part of ME495 (Mechatronics)  Capstone Design Projects, SPRING 2005

 

 

 

 

 

     

Video of Final Test

 

     

 

 

 

 

 

      Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) Actuated Insect-like Robot:  Reese Allen, Ryan Goding, and Mohd Ikmal Ismail 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

 Video of final robot test

 

 

 

     SMA Actuated Robotic Fingers:
Alexan
der 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

 

 

 

 

 

Brain Controlled Interface for Robotics

Mark Kirshenbaum, Dorian Gahm  and Sean Chang designed a sensor to measure forehead muscle motions to control robotic devices. Challenges including conditioning of  the signals measured from a headband, and signal processing to control a motor.  The signals were used to control   This project was part of ME495 (Mechatronics)  Capstone Design Projects, SPRING 2009

      

       Video of Preliminary Test

 Video of Final  Foot motion

 Video of Final  Hand motion

 

 

 

Robotic End-Effector

Joleen Grazier,  Matthew Lai, Geoff Wales, and Alicia Skilton designed an end effector for a robotic arm to pick up test tubes and beakers. Challenges including programming the HC12 to control a stepper motor and interfacing the design with a FANUC robotic arm.   This project was part of ME495 (Mechatronics)  Capstone Design Projects, SPRING 2009

 
   Video of Prototype

 

 

Gutter Bot

 Taylor Grenier, Martin Vogel, Zack Smith and Michael Somintac designed and built a prototype gutter cleaning robot. Challenges including making a small enough prototype to fit in a standard gutter, sensing if the robot is stuck or if it has reached the end of a gutter, and designing an anti-flip mechanism.   This project was part of ME495 (Mechatronics)  Capstone Design Projects, SPRING 2009

  Video of Prototype

 

 

 

Quad-copter

T J Werle, Brandon O'Toole, Scott Wilcox, and Robbie Schwartz built a prototype 4-rotor helicopter. Challenges including designing a light-weight frame and controlling the motors using pulse-width modulation with the HC12. This project was part of ME495 (Mechatronics)  Capstone Design Projects, SPRING 2009

Video of Prototype

 

 

 

 

Solar Panel Tracker

Haris Ozegovich, Azamat Akkushin, Alexander Babchanik,  and Michael Karatsupa designed a solar tracker to keep solar panels aligned to the sun.  Challenges included handling interference such as a cloud layer and variations in intensity.  A. prototype was designed and successfully tested to show the ability to track a potentially varying light source.  This project was part of ME495 (Mechatronics)  Capstone Design Projects, SPRING 2009

Video of Prototype in Action

 

 

 

Other projects

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. This project was part of ME495 (Mechatronics)  Capstone Design Projects, Spring 2003

 

 

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.  This project was part of ME495 (Mechatronics)  Capstone Design Projects, Spring 2003

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.  This project was part of ME495 (Mechatronics)  Capstone Design Projects, Spring 2003

 

 

 

 

 

 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.

This project was part of ME495 (Mechatronics)  Capstone Design Projects, Spring 2005

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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. This project was part of ME495 (Mechatronics)  Capstone Design Projects, Spring 2007

 

 

 

 

 

        Other projects on mobile robots

 

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

 

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