Senior Design Projects
ReNeu XY Drawing Table
My Senior Design team and I in collaboration with UT's RenNeu Robotics Lab created the XY Drawing Table to allow those with motor disabilities to draw using a whiteboard marker.
A unique design challenge was designing the XYZ actuation of a marker without using easily accessible motors and rails. Exposed moving parts and electrical components are a safety hazard, especially if the user is a small child. We chose to use magnets to actuate the marker system. The user can actuate a magnet carriage in the XY axis with a joystick in tandem with an expo marker in a configuration shown here.
Magnet XY carriage with neodymium magnet and electromagnet mounts.
Marker carriage with neodymium magnets and ball casters.
The marker housing is mounted on nylon ball casters. There are a stack of magnets on the housing that is attracted to magnets moving below the white board surface of the table actuating the pen in the XY axis.
The marker housing is a unique design that mimics a "click" pen mechanism. Instead of pushing down on the button of a pen, the user pushes a button next to the joystick to turn on the electromagnet, putting the marker either onto or away from the drawing surface. I chose to implement this to allow the user to not be limited to continuous line drawings. The mechanism can be seen in action actuated using a magnet through the surface of a table where a marker would be bolted into the center hole.
Here's a link to our project deliverables:
Ice Cream Rowing Machine
The prompt for this project was to design a DIY-able at home exercise machine. We were given this prompt as a response to the many people that had to find ways to exercise without a gym during the pandemic. Me and my team decided to create a low-cost rowing machine that also churned ice cream.
This project was completely manufactured by my team and I in a garage and I am quite proud of what we were able to accomplish with common power tools. The $200 budget and DIY requirement were the most challenging parts of this project
Here is a picture of me on the final product:
