VII. Conclusions and Future Work - SK

Conclusions

The final prototype of the mechanism successfully converted a rotational input to a linear output.

The tasks I successfully performed while creating this mechanism include:

• Writing the project proposal so I could plan out everything that I needed for the project. I planned out the materials and tools I would use and then received feedback so I could improve my anticipated design.
• Conducting kinematic analysis to understand how the mechanism's motion before building it. I was able to check with PMKS to see whether my kinematic analysis was correct.
• Building the links and housing unit of my mechanism from commonly available items and tools given the pandemic.

Future Work

There are various things that I have learned throughout the process of creating this mechanism, and I have become aware of many things that could have been done more efficiently. Some of the things that I have learned from this experience and will keep in mind for future projects are the following:

• If not in a pandemic, I would have tried using the laser cutter at Texas Inventionworks. Building the pieces by hand was very difficult and tedious, so access to the laser cutter would have made the build process much easier. I had four final projects this semester, so I had a difficult time managing all the projects. The at-home projects took much more time, so having access to all the tools at UT would have made this project easier.
• Instead of using so many nuts, bolts, and washers, I could use pins, sleeves, and bearings. This could have made the link rotation a bit smoother. I had a difficult time finding the pins, sleeves, and bearings at Home Depot so I had used nuts, bolts, and washers for the time being.
• I would make the mechanism much smaller. Using the large pieces of wood made it very difficult for the motor to move. Using smaller pieces would allow the motor to have an easier time moving the links. Then, I would not have to manually control the motor's angular velocity using my circuit.