Design Process

SolidWorks Drawings of Key Components (click to enlarge)

Our first prototype consisted of two four-bar parallelograms that turned out of phase to each other. We sought to prove that parallelograms could be used in our final design. The material of choice was acrylic and steel nuts and bolts, for ease of construction.

For our second prototype, we incorporated the sponsor requirements into our design process and decided on three things:

1. Use wood as the main construction material to decrease weight
2. Utilize a toggle lock to eliminate the need for a locking mechanism to decrease weight
3. Eliminate the motor element

While the main links will be machined from aluminum, wood will comprise most of the structure and provide grounding points.