Senior Projects
Linear Actuator
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Luke Woolley, an ME
and robotics minor graduate, explains the Mobile Robot
Manipulator, a senior project sponsored by National Instruments.
The students designed a manipulator for the DaNI robot by using
LabVIEW. This gave the robot an additional degree of freedom to
accomplish complicated tasks. The students demonstrated these
capabilities with a line following and sorting task.
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This project consists of designing and building a linear
actuator system with position, velocity and force control. The
ultimate goal of the system is to be implemented in humanoid
robotics, imitating a muscle by using linear displacement to create
rotational motion about a fixed point. However, that end goal is
still far off, and initially the system will be used in the
industrial field. The project can be broken down into several
sub-systems, including the mechanical apparatus, sensors and
feedback, control system, and electric hardware. The solution needs
to be elegant, not requiring much space or power, but must still be
well controlled and robust. The project is using a pneumatic
cylinder for the linear actuator, controlled by a PIC 18f4550 chip
through a proportional valve.
Sponsor: Christopher
Quick, cbquick@gmail.com
Team: Nathan Jackson, Richard Chelminski, Matthew
Behling
Electrophoresis Machine Graphical User Interface
This project is a Graphical User Interface (GUI) that interfaces
with Beckman Coulter's PA 800+ Electrophoresis Machine. The
project will allow field technicians to complete qualification and
calibration tasks outlined in the OQ3 Procedures Manual. The GUI
will decrease the time required to perform the functions,
specifically calibration and alignment of the buffer and sample
trays, rails, and cartridges.
Sponsor: Josh Zarecky,
Beckman Coulter, JGZarecky@Beckman.com
Team: Jasmine Browne, Dominic Gates, Alexander Gumz, Tim
Wentz
Automated Flight and Travel System for Hatfield Hall
Flying is one of the
hardest illusions to pull off on stage. It requires heavy lifting,
smooth operation and dangerous heights. Rose-Hulman's performing
arts center, Hatfield Hall, has conquered this illusion. They
utilize a rail-and-pulley system to move a variety of loads in both
the X and Z axes, where X is lateral position across the stage, Y
is stage depth, and Z is height off of the stage. The locomotion of
the flight system depends primarily on manually pulled cables. Greg
Stump, the Technical Director of Hatfield Hall, would like to have
the assembly automated. The system must seamlessly emulate a human
powered system, being able to accelerate loads of 500lbs to 2ft/s,
while being controlled by an easy-to-use software package.
Sponsor: Greg Stump,
Hatfield Hall, stump@rose-hulman.edu
Team: Zachary Hawkins, Jon Nibert, Derik
Sikes