VI) Conclusions and Future Work

Conclusion

The final prototype of the mechanism met the goal initially stated of converting rotary motion into linear motion while also being able to rotate in a full 360-degree revolution. What I think went right in the process of creating this mechanism are the following:

• Writing a project proposal beforehand where it is clearly stated what the goals of the mechanism are, things that must be taken into consideration, and the materials that could possibly be used in order to create it. This allowed me to have a clearer idea of what it was that I needed the mechanism to do while making me think ahead of time of the things that I had to keep an eye out for and come up with solutions for. 
• Performing various kinematic analyses, plots, and animations that show how the mechanism should operate before building the mechanism. Additionally, using PMKS to view the paths of various links throughout its rotation and comparing them to the ones obtained in MATLAB serves to check the equations obtained from kinematic analysis and make sure the final mechanism is being compared to an actual representation of it. 
• Using the laser cutter as opposed to 3D printing my mechanism, as this was way quicker and more precise than 3D printing would have been.

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:

• Bolts, nuts, and washers are not always the best idea to use as joints, especially for an object that experiences a lot of rotation. The bolts and nuts would come loose very frequently throughout the testing of my mechanism and the actual runs. It became very time-consuming to tighten all of the nuts as frequently as I had to in order to keep on operating the mechanism. If this was a mechanism that was left to run for a long time, the bolts and nuts would not have worked at all.
• The undermount drawer slides were unnecessary. I could have achieved the same motion of the slider by creating a slot in the board and having the joint of the slider be longer and travel through the vertical slot instead. This would have saved me a lot of money and would have made the mechanism less heavy.
• The mechanism could have been way smaller than I ended up making it. This would have made it way easier for me to carry around and put away than what it really is. It also would have decreased the price of the mechanism