Mechanisms Skill Builder

A project involving the design and construction of a high-fidelity prototype of a specific type of mechanism. 

The goal of this project was to learn about the engineering design process, not to create a perfect replica of a mechanism. By creating both low and high-fidelity prototypes, I was able to identify and learn from certain issues in the first prototype. By adding these improvements to the final prototype, my group was able to create a working example of the results of the engineering design process.

The process began with two low fidelity prototypes. Pictured above, these prototypes were built with two intentions in mind: to prove that constructing this mechanism out of cardboard was possible, and to identify possible issues that must be fixed. As can be seen, these prototypes were very rough in nature, but because of that, we were able to improve our final prototype. Following this phase, we designed the final prototype in AutoCAD to be laser cut (pictured in the top left corner). Once cut, the final prototype was assembled, accounting for all mistakes/imperfections noted in the two low fidelity prototypes.