Mechanism Design

4. Marine-life-friendly boat propulsion system (Assignment #1)

4.1 Methodology used to derive skeleton model

  • Inspiration: The design was inspired by the natural arm motion of a turtle. A reference image of a turtle was overlaid onto Math Illustration to study its movement.
  • Initial Iteration: A mechanical linkage system was constructed to replicate the turtle’s arm motion. This is the baseline for evaluating motion accuracy.
  • Refinement: The dimensions of each linkage segment were adjusted to better approximate the kinematics of the turtle’s arm.

3. Mechanism Synthesis – Translation (Sep 10)

Top: Two position synthesis

Middle: Ship door mechanism

How to design

  1. Construct the perpendicular bisector of the segment joining the two positions of one endpoint of the line as it translates.
  2. Repeat this process for the other endpoint of the line.
  3. The intersection of the two bisectors defines the center of rotation of the mechanism.
  4. Using this center, design a rocker mechanism so that the line oscillates between its two positions within the specified range.

2. Mechanism Design using Math Illustration (Sep 8)

Top: Planar pin-jointed mechanism

Middle: Slider-crank mechanism

Bottom: Rocker Motion

How to design

  1. A base image was imported into the software and set to 80% transparency.
  2. Reference lines were traced over the image, and their lengths were constrained.
  3. The moving component was assigned a variable.
  4. The motion was demonstrated by varying the parameter across its full range.

1. Four Bar Mechanism Tutorial

Analysis was conducted:

Coming soon