Electronics and Software (HW)

For the electronic components within our prototype, we used a 12V DC motor with high torque. Since our motor gave us the desired speed that we were looking for, we just used a 3D-printed connector to connect the shaft and motor to turn the gears and flap the “wings”.

There was no coding or software needed to control our mechanism, because it only relied on continuous rotation in one direction. However, we used various software during the analysis and construction process. To analyze our six-bar mechanism, we used MATLAB for position and velocity analysis. All the parts that were 3D-printed and laser cut were modeled in SolidWorks. 

Figure 5.1. Image of motor used.