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The Design of Innovative Machines Lab (the DIMLab) is home to the design team led by Dr. Drew Murray and Dr. Dave Myszka of the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department.
The primary goal of the team is to create, design, build, and test novel machines and mechanisms for a variety of applications while generating the theory that supports these innovations.
The DIMLab is in Kettering Labs, room 143, on the University of Dayton campus.
What's Happening in the DIMLab?
2025
April 23th: Members of the DIMLab presented their posters at the Stander Symposium 2025.
Tianze Xu (Caesar) - Novel High-Speed Mechanical Press Designs Optimized for Improved for Improved Ram Dwell Limited by Joint Force Considerations
Benjamin Michael Schaiper - Mechanical Design of an Aircraft with a Bio-Inspired Rotating Empennage
Ryan Joseph Rotsching - Bio-Inspired Rotating Empennage(BIRE) - Desktop Model
Daniel E Gubser, Adomas Mazeika, Simon S Baker - Design of a Pipe Inspection and Remediation Soft Robot
2024
April 17th: Members of the DIMLab presented their posters at the Stander Symposium 2024.
Tianze Xu (Caesar) - Optimizing Novel High-Speed Mechanical Press Designs for Improved Ram Dwell Limited by Joint Force Considerations
Yucheng Li - Kinematics of Inextensible Constant Curvature Model for the Design of Minimally Invasive Surgical Robots
Jack Studnicka - Topology Optimization Results Spaceframe Interpreter for the Design of Lightweight Aircraft Structures
Ian Dargai, Antoine Gagne, John Hoover, and Hayden Lingel - Soft Robotic End-Effector Design: A Potential for Cost-Effective Maintenance in Aerospace Inspection and Pipe Investigation
Ben Schaiper, Luke Lococo, Kahra Loding, Ryan Rotsching- Using MotionGen to Help Teach Concepts From Machine Theory
Andrew Gasser, Veronica Hatfield, Brian Piper, & Brock Smith- Doors, Trikes and Folding Wings: Advancing Concepts for Machines Using MotionGen
Colin Meehan- Mechanical Design of an Aircraft with a Bio-Inspired Rotating Empennage
Frank McClimans and John Hoover- Designing Spherical Mechanisms, from Wrist Orthotics to Mechanical Novelties
April 10th: Tainze (Caesar) Xu was awarded the 2024 Graduate Student Summer Fellowship. Caesar was awarded funding for his proposal on the Optimizing Novel High-Speed Mechanical Press Designs for Improved Ram Dwell Limited by Joint Force Considerations.
April 9th: The Kinematics of Constant Curvature Continuum Robots Through Three Segments will be presented at the 2024 IEEE ICRA in Yokohama, Japan.
April 9th: The following late-breaking results will also be presented at the 2024 IEEE ICRA in Yokohama, Japan.
Thislate-breaking result presents numerical solutions for the inverse kinematics (IK) problem in inextensible piecewise constant curvature (IPCC) continuum robots (CR) with three segments. For a specific IK problem, the criterion for the existence of the maximum length of each segment can be identified, noting that a maximum length may not exist. After specifying a segment length, all possible positions of the segment tip for the first segment of the CR are determined on a tip locus for a given IK problem. Selecting the tip location along the locus reduces the remaining two segments of the CR to being defined by a tip location on a circle. For an arbitrary choice along the tip locus and along the tip circle, the second and third segments possess arbitrary lengths. Moving along the initial tip locus, and then along the tip circle generates a two-parameter search for finding all three segments of the same length. Via this technique, an example of an IPCC continuum robot IK problem is shown to have 8 unique solutions. Eight is the most found by the authors to date, but it is not known to be the maximum number of real, unique solutions.
Feb 12th: The video A SolidWorks Tutorial for Constructing a Spherical Four-Bar Mechanism by Franklin McClimans for his A Spherical Mechanism as an Articulated Conundrum project with Dr. Murray
2023
August 21st: The A.T. Yang Memorial Award in Theoretical Kinematics was presented at the IDETC 2023 MR Conference to three members of the DIMLab. The paper selected for the award was titled “THE SYNTHESIS OF P-DRIVABLE SINGLE DEGREE OF FREEDOM SPATIAL MECHANISMS" and was authored by Jian Liu, Mohammad Zainullah Khan, David H. Myszka, and Andrew P. Murray.
July 11th: Both Mohammad Zainullah Khan (Zain) and Yucheng (Chen) Li were winners of the 2023 NSF/ASME Design Essay Contest. The award will cover up to $1500 for each of them to attend the IDETC 2023 conference and present their findings at a poster session.
The essays were titled:
Stepping Back to Spring Forward: Integrating human creativity in an Era of AI Dependency by Mohammad Zainullah Khan
Innovating Futuristic Desing and Manufacturing: A Thriving Company in 2040 by Yucheng Li
June 17th: The DIMLab paper “THE SYNTHESIS OF P-DRIVABLE SINGLE DEGREE OF FREEDOM SPATIAL MECHANISMS" has been selected as the winner of the A.T. Yang Memorial Award in Theoretical Kinematics at the upcoming IDETC 2023 MR Conference. The paper was authored by Jian Liu, Mohammad Zainullah Khan, David H. Myszka, and Andrew P. Murray.
April 21st: Yucheng (Chen) Li placed 3rd in the Graduate Research category at the University of Dayton chapter of Sigma Xi's 2023 Celebration of Research event.
April 19th: Members of the DIMLab presented their posters at the Stander Symposium 2023.
John (Jack) M Wischmeyer - Design of an Electro-pneumatic Control System for Soft Robotic Applications in Medicine and Industry
Mohammad Zainullah Khan (Zain) - Task Allocation and Dead-Lock-Free Trajectory Planning for Collaborative Multi-Robot System
Tianze Xu (Ceaser) - Approximate Motion Synthesis of Four Bar Linkages Using Poles: A Bi Invariant Approach
Yucheng (Chen) Li - Kinematic Synthesis in the Design of Continuum Robots
Kyle Naumann- Generating Low Order Weight Models for Mechanical Design of an Aircraft with a Bio-Inspired Rotating Empennage
April 14th: Yucheng (Chen) Li and Tainze (Caesar) Xu were awarded the 2023 Graduate Student Summer Fellowship. Chen was awarded funding for his proposal on the Kinematic Synthesis in the Design of Continuum Robots. Caesar was awarded funding for his proposal on the Approximate Motion Synthesis of Four-Bar Mechanisms using Poles: A Bi-Invariant Approach to the Design of Metamachines.
March 20th: Yucheng (Chen) Li won the Graduate Student Showcase Award for outstanding doctoral student in mechanical engineering. He received his award on April 19th at an event held as part of the Stander Symposium.
March 19th: Mohammad Zainullah Khan (Zain) made a video on how he used engineering to solve the DIMLabyrinths puzzle. It is a challenging 3-dimensional puzzle inside of a 5 x 5 cube. The objective is to insert a marble from one end of the maze and navigate it all the way through until it comes out from the other end. [Download & 3D print your own] [Puzzle Solution-MATLAB code ]
2022
October 18-20: A prototype of a modular telescopic gripper has been developed in collaboration with the HumanLab to overcome the difficulties in gripping from a seated position (wheelchair-type station).
See the project's wiki for more details.
October: This mechanism is for actuating the horizontal stabilizers of an aircraft using a rotating empennage without a vertical stabilizer. Birds do not have vertical stabilizers and rotate their tail feathers to control agile maneuvers. A rotating empennage concept will mimic this motion and enable the bio-inspired flight of a fixed-wing aircraft. [link to research paper] [Linkedin ASME announcement]
September 21: Clement Trotobas, Christine Azevedo and Drew Murray authored an article posted on LinkedIn about contributions to the field of orthotics and prosthetics featured in the ASME's Journal of Mechanism and Robotics.
May & September
April 22: Ten DIMLab members presented their research at the Stander Symposium:
Nicholas Andrew Lanese - Six-Bar Linkage Models of a Recumbent Tricycle Mechanism to Increase Power Throughput in FES Cycling
John (Jack) M Wischmeyer - Design of a Soft Robot Pneumatic Cushion for Bedsore Prevention in Persons with Paraplegia or Tetraplegia
Mohammad Zainullah Khan ('Zain') - Multi-Robot Path Planning with Collision Avoidance
Tianze Xu - Approximate Motion Synthesis by Using the Poles of Planar Displacements
Yucheng Li - Kinematic Synthesis in the Design of Continuum Robots
Mohamed Ali Alsadig Mohamed- Evaluating Solar Array Positioning Designs for Small Satellites
Bailey A Reid, Kyle Naumann & Patrick B Hudak - Establishing Soft Robot Modeling and Simulation Fundamentals to Drive Smart Hose Design
Camden Lee Ives - Topology Optimization Results Spaceframe Interpreter (TORSI)
April 19th: Congratulations to DIMLab member Jack Wischmeyer. Jack received $1500 in support of his Honors Thesis project for his proposal "Design of a Soft Robotic Pneumatic Cushion for Bedsore Prevention in Persons with Paraplegia or Tetraplegia."
April 10th: Yucheng (Chen) Li's 2022 Graduate Student Summer Fellowship proposal was selected for funding. His proposal was selected for its "quality, scholarly excellence, and publication potential from among a very large number of submissions." His work will focus on the kinematic synthesis of continuum robots utilizing efficient inverse kinematics algorithms.
2021
May 1st: Tianze (Caesar) Xu was awarded a Graduate Student Summer Fellowship. He was funded for his project "Designing Energy Efficient & High-Speed Mechanical Presses for Improved Ram Motions using Advanced Algebraic Techniques." These awards are from the Graduate School at the University of Dayton and provide a stipend for the summer!
February 3: The images and video below are from Noel Michel's undergraduate honors thesis project "Designing Fictional Spaces: Questionable Architecture that Supports Sustainable Design." Noel constructed weird and paradoxical spaces described in three pieces of short fiction using the Rhinoceros 3D modeling package. This video and the printed models are from Donald Barthelme's "The Balloon" about a massive balloon that appears over New York City.
2020
June 1: We launched our DIMLab My Mini Factory site featuring printable DIMLabyrinths like the one seen to the left. A DIMLabyrinth is a 3-dimensional maze that fills the space in a cube. To download and print your own, please visit our My Mini Factory site! Watch the videos below to see what game play looks like. In the case of the 3-by-3-by-3, our S3RP3NTIN3 DIMLabyrinth puzzle, you can see it smoothly solved in the video on the left. In the case of the 5-by-5-by-5, our Cube-asaurus Rex DIMLabyrinth puzzle, you can see the frustration caused by this challenging puzzle in the video on the right!
The videos below show DIMLabyrinth mazes generated by our MATLAB code. The code guarantees all spots in the cube are visited and that a path connects the input location to the output location.
The video shows a very challenging 10-by-10-by-10 maze.
This video shows a far less challenging 3-by-3-by-3 maze.
May 15: The mannequin in this video shows off the statically equivalent serial chain (SESC). He teaches us about the SESC using some sweet dance moves, so be sure to crank up your sound! The SESC is a way of visualizing and tracking the center of mass. Once the SESC is constructed through some initial experiments, the center of mass is located from the kinematics alone. No force plates or sensing of other data is needed! In the video, the SESC is the set of links that begins at hip center. Note how the SESC moves as the mannequin moves.
The virtual mannequin stars in the video. The actual mannequin exists too! Recent testing was performed in the Motion Analysis Lab in Fitz Hall (room 220F) with Allison Kinney's biomechanics team. We're hoping to compare the actual data to the virtual data from the model!
May 1: The images and videos below are from Noel Michel's undergraduate honors thesis project "Designing Fictional Spaces: Questionable Architecture that Supports Sustainable Design." Noel constructed weird and paradoxical spaces described in three pieces of short fiction using the Rhinoceros 3D modeling package. The first video and the three images below it are from Jorge Luis Borges's "The Library of Babel." The author details a library that is seemingly infinite in scale (it has more books than there are atoms in the universe!) yet is actually finite.
This video is from Donald Barthelme's "The Balloon" about a massive balloon that appears over New York City.
Frank Kafka wrote a short(-ish!) story called "The Burrow." The narrator describes an underground lair that he has fashioned himself. The two images below are inspired by the story.
April 22: Thirteen DIMLab members presented their research at the Stander Symposium:
Dillon Balk - Soft Robot Actuator Design for Digital Light Processing
Anthony Bazler & Nick Lanese - Design of a Trike for Paraplegics Powered By Functional Electrical Stimulation of Leg Muscles
Yizhen Cai - A Novel Approach to Design Planar Four-Bar Linkages for Approximation Motion Synthesis
Tiangang Chen - A Fast Algorithm for Solving the Kinematics of Hyper Redundant Robots
Robert McCarren - Automated Design of Truss-Based Mechanical Components Using Topology Optimization
Noel Michel - Designing Fictional Spaces: Questionable Architecture that Supports Sustainable Design
Austin Mills - Assessment of the Structural Suitability of Tensegrity Aircraft Wings
Mohamed Mohamed - Optimization of Solar Array Positioning Actuators for Small Satellites
Chengwei Shi - Design Modeling of Spatial Shape-Change Linkages
Adam Wicks - DIMLabyrinths: Printable 3D Cube Mazes
Tianze Xu - Dimensioning Mechanical Press Architecture for Improved Dwell using Advanced Algebraic Techniques
Xingyu Zhu - Dimensioning Mechanical Presses Driven by a Geared Five-Bar for Desired Dwell using Advanced Algebraic Techniques
April 15: The DIMLab is currently working with a team at the Labatoire d'Informatique, de Robotique et de Microelectronique de Montpellier (LIRMM) in France. The goal is to develop tricycles powered by FES stimulated leg muscles in drivers with para- or tetraplegia. The official site for the project is freewheels.inria.fr. The video above shows one of the concepts for modifying the pedaling mechanism.
April 1: The DIMLab has a long standing interest in shape-changing mechanisms. A concept for a morphing wing using tensegrity is shown in the video above.
March 19th: Mohammad Zainullah Khan (Zain) made a video on how he used engineering to solve the DIMLabyrinths puzzle. It is a challenging 3-dimensional puzzle inside of a 5 x 5 cube. The objective is to insert a marble from one end of the maze and navigate it all the way through until it comes out from the other end. [Download & 3D print your own] [Puzzle Solution-MATLAB code ]
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