Last week, I worked on a bunch of random stuff. Mostly I helped work on a new prototype for test bed 6. It is lighter and more compact than the old one. I am trying to help create a new ankle angle sensor also. But mostly just waiting for materials to get in.

Fun times with an Oildyne Pump

      This past week has been filled with a lot of reading. I received a 300 page book from Professor Durfee on O-ring materials, properties, fittings, etc. But I also had the chance to do some really fun things taking apart the miniature circuit that our lab uses to demonstrate the power density of compact fluid power machines.

Miniature Hydraulic Circuit

      This is the small hydraulic circuit that we use for demos. The entire thing is about the size of a sheet of paper. Although detached from the circuit in this picture, a small motor and pump contained in a manifold casing are attached to the two ports at the bottom right corner of the circuit. The small loop of metal wire (see top right corner of the circuit) is attached to the actuator and is used to attach a load to the actuator. Currently the system can lift a load of 300 pounds during actuation. Right now there's a minor problem with the reservoir not having a cap, making such tests very messy, but stay tuned for testing the circuit out to see if it can lift the other REUs at UMN! 

From left to right: motor, pump, manifold

     Now for fun times with the pump! first I had to take apart the motor, manifold, and pump. In the complete circuit, the pump fits snugly into the manifold which prevents the external pump casing from rotating when the motor is running. I decided to take them all apart and see what everything looked like on the inside, including figuring out how the inlet and outlet in the pump connected to the manifold and the rest of the circuit. Then Jicheng (a grad student in my lab) and I decided to have a little fun and tried to see if we could actually watch the pump displacing fluid out of the outlet.

Some serious struggle-bus moments and a LOT of spilled oil later, we ended up with this. Enjoy!

A Change of Scenery and A Change of Topic!

Hey everyone!

So far it has been an amazing, work-filled, and pretty insightful week. First, to begin, I found out on the  day after my return to Milwaukee that my research project would be changed from dealing with biodegradable fluids to working with reservoir sizing. Thus far the new name for my project is "Determining an Engineering Basis for Specifying the Size of a Hydraulic Reservoir"

After doing some initial digging on the criteria for reservoir sizing I was pretty shocked to figure out that there was no engineering or mathematical basis behind why the size of a hydraulics reservoir has to the size it is. I was able to determine that criteria used to size the reservoir include pump flow, cylinder displacement, slope, heat rejection, and aeration. One recommendation offered by many sources stated that the reservoir size should be 2-3 times your flow rate from the pump. What if there were a way to make it smaller?

My project will essentially revolve around the criteria used to size a hydraulic reservoir. I will stop here, but I just wanted to give you all a brief preview of what my project has become since leaving Purdue. I have a couple schematics and pictures of some of the equipment that I'll be working with, but that's for next time!

Thanks for reading!

Chris

A week already flew by?

Hey everyone! Hope everyone is doing alright!
So far I haven't done too much except read a lot of manuals and textbooks, and help out grad students here and there with their projects. During the first week I read papers on some previous students' work and had to read textbooks to get familiar with basic hydraulics and acoustics. The grad students taught me how to use the oil rig for testing and gave me a brief overview of how everything functions. In addition to working on my project, I am expected to help out other grad students with their projects. For example, I helped them test their hydraulic suppressors and collect data. I also had to make a fluid power schematic of the oil rig using all of those symbols learned at the boot camp. As far as my project goes, I'm still learning and researching on ways to optimize the device I'm creating and calculating the stresses that the device will undergo.

First update, for science

Hello all, hope you have all survived since the CCEFP meetup and have quickly assimilated to the REU sites.

I initially thought that I would be dealing with some direct involvement with Test Bed 6 (Human Assisted Ankle Foot Orthosis); my project title from the CCEFP website was as vague as they come, "Novel Fluid-Power Components through Additive Manufacturing". When I finally met with my advisor, he drew up some suggested routes to take the research project to, which I deduced to thermoelectric generators (TEGs)/energy harvesting or meso-scale steam turbines and actuators. I chose to continue the work on waste heat recovery from a previous REU participant from 2011 (Toni Borel) in seeing the impact that a TEG could have if implemented to any of the test beds, as they convert thermal energy and heat into electrical energy. Considering the project is listed under the compactness thrust, portability and size is definitely a consideration, as TEGs are mobile due to lack of moving parts. Additionally, the ability to extract excess heat from engines and convert it to useful energy would help improve efficiencies in most fluid power systems. I expect to fabricate my own miniature TEG and fully testing its capabilities for future use. Currently, we are using a demonstration kit from last year until a better commercial manufacturer is found; awaiting a soldering iron from McMaster to solder small contacts. 

The following short video demonstrates one of three effects (Peltier effect) that comprise of thermoelectricity theory. 

Your working on SimHydraulics! Oh wait, Just Kidding...

Thursday Professor Durfee returned to the University of Minnesota from vacation. We had a wonderful talk about my project, and we seemed to have settled on a topic. I would be responsible for modeling the refined AFO hydraulic circuit in SimHydraulics, a branch of Simulink in Matlab. The current generation of the AFO circuit is functional, but too heavy due to excess pipe fittings and an unnecessarily large cylinder. He explained the my goal would be to gain expertise in SimHydraulics and develop this model. Energized, I set out to master SimHydraulics through various tutorials and by reconstructing the existing models for the Generation 1 AFO circuit.

This is one of the sample circuits that you can find in the SimHydraulics tutorials. It's pretty simple, but it still took me a good hour to figure out how to put it together. 

I was modeling away happily, when Professor Durfee walked into the lab. He then informed me that I would be doing little to no modeling for the rest of the summer. Instead I would be responsible for machining a newly designed miniature cylinder, and running tests on the new hydraulic circuit to verify the theoretical values for circuit power and efficiency that one of Professor Durfee's grad students, Jicheng, has calculated. Honestly, I'm thrilled that I get to do some hands on machining and experiments instead of sitting in front of the computer all day! I've got to keep reading up on basic hydraulics for the next week, but soon Jicheng should be done designing the new cylinder and I can get started!

Hi everyone!

This first week has flown by! I have done a TON of reading on hydrostatic transmissions and wind turbines, and I am beginning to look at Matlab's Simhydraulics. This is all in preparation for my project which consists of modeling a split power system (between a planetary gear box and a hydrostatic transmission) for a 50 kW wind turbine. I am really excited to start the modeling process although my first interaction with the computers in the mechanical engineering computer cluster does not bode well for me- after logging into a Linux system for the very first time I discovered that not only was I incapable of finding or opening any programs but I didn't even know how to logout. I was completely stuck and ultimately needed a one-on-one tutoring session from the tech department. I definitely owe them some pastries now!    

So Do You Make Boilers? Or something...

It is a well known fact that the majority of engineers are not the most socially gifted individuals in the world (obviously my fellow REUs and I are social masters). But even this knowledge could not have prepared me for the single most awkward conversation I have ever had with another engineer. I was sitting calmly, wearing a Purdue shirt with the word Boilermakers across the top, reading my copy of Hydraulics and Pneumatics: A Technician's and Engineer's Guide by Andrew Parr, when a young man approached me. "Do you make boilers?" he asked.
It took me a moment to understand what he said, since it was such an unusual question. Then I remembered the shirt I was wearing, and struggled to hold back laughter as I explained that the Boilermakers were Purdue's mascot, and that I didn't even go there, but had gotten the shirt from a friend. After an unbearable and one-sided conversation, I was finally free to resume my project for the week:

READING

Despite my background in English and propensity for creative writing, I have never done so much reading in one week. While waiting for Professor Durfee (my research sponsor) to return from his vacation, I was told to do some reading on the basics of hydraulic circuits and to make myself as familiar with the basics of hydraulic pumps, motors, and cylinders. Over the week I read Hydraulics and Pneumatics, several papers on miniature hydraulics written by a graduates student in my lab, and a LOT of articles on hydraulicspneumatics.com about hydraulic components. If I read another article on vane pumps my eyes may explode, but now I am very informed. Looking forward to putting this knowledge to the test. 

Dexter Watkins

Hi guys!  I'm Dexter Watkins, and I will be a senior at Vanderbilt this coming school year.  I'm majoring in Mechanical Engineering, with minors in Computer Science and Chinese.  I am your typical nerd, into video games, comics/manga, fantasy and sci-fi novels, and D&D.  

This summer I am working in the MEDLab here at Vanderbilt.  I've worked in this lab last semester, developing a deployment device for an active cannula as well as helping run a few experiments on a steerable needle, but this summer I will be starting a new project and work on ressurecting an old haptic robotic arm that has been sitting in one of Vandy's mechanical engineering labs for the past 15 years.  It was originally built for a student's master's thesis, and as the years have gone by its parts have been cannibalized for use in other projects.  All that remains now are the motors, potentiometers, and the carbon fiber arm itself.  

Project goals are to buy amplifiers and interface the robot with a computer (we'll be using Simulink and mathwork's xPC OS).  Next will be to implement position control.  Finally, we will be prepare the robot for fluid power interaction, most likely interacting with a pneumatic cylinder or setting up a master-slave control scheme with a fluid powered robot  in another of the engineering labs here at Vandy.

So far, I have the power supply and amplifiers ordered (thank you AMC for the great discount!) and am building the emergency stop circuitry from scratch, which is slow going but a lot of fun.

AFO pneumatic circuit efficiency...sort of

Hi everyone!
So originally when I met with my professor, I was going to work on testing the efficiency of the components in the pneumatic circuit for their current ankle-foot orthotic prototype (test bed 6). After that I was going to create a model of it in a special version of Simulink. But after a couple other meetings, that stuff is now on the back-burner I am now in charge of more electrical stuff ...currently wiring a new prototype and will have to debug it on Monday. Also, apparently I will be helping with a study on the biomechanics of firemen. Soooo I think that puts me all over the place :) It's good to hear what everyone's doing!
Have an excellent weekend!!!

Hello everyone,

As the first week comes to an end, I have been reading up on Augmented Reality (AR) which is a form of Virtual Reality or Virtual Environment that aims to duplicate the world’s (real form) environment. I will be working on developing a Human Machine Interface (HMI) for hydraulic excavators using AR combined with HUD technology and Multimodal Augmented Interaction (MAI) to allow for information presentation and interaction.

Hi everyone,

I'm working with human-machine interaction. The project I'm involved addresses a multimodal interface for an excavator. The new developed excavator is controlled by a haptic device, which includes haptic cues to the operator, while in the traditional excavator, the operator relies mainly on visual and auditory cues.
So far I'm working on a quantitative modeling of human-excavator interaction, developing and revising mathematical models, then implementing on Matlab in order to compare the haptic-controlled and the traditional excavator in terms of human factors and operation productivity.
If anyone wants to know more details about the project, please contact me.

Enio Frota.

Hi everyone,

I forgot to give a brief description of me, so here it goes: I am from Brazil and I came to study for one year here in the Unites States, and now I am an Industrial Engineering senior at North Carolina A&T, in Greensboro

In this first week, I have been working on a study of a prototype interface for a fluid powered rescue robot, testing its usability using an eye tracking device, Tobii T60. We ran some experiments and now I am analyzing the results and studying the changes that need to be made in the interface, using the GUI Design Software, in order to improve the usability of the interface. 

Shop Infrastructure.. 

That's what I'm dealing with and ideally, it'd be going much faster than it currently is. I am currently in the process of getting my test bed prepared here at Maha. As my bed is currently being used by another researcher, I kind of have to just like get things prepared for when he is finished. Which is a bit of a scary thought considering how little time I have left. Currently I am awaiting quotes from 2 machinists that are creating the motor mounting brackets I've designed. Those weren't too bad to make other than getting the exact measurements from my pump's original mount drawings... which were in German, and obviously didn't include modifications since then. We have almost all of our equipment for our circuit now, it's just a matter of finding where to mount everything and ordering all the electrical wiring and components for installation. That is actually pretty tricky because understanding the manual of the frequency drive which was written for experienced electrical engineers isn't easy. So I'm a little lost in which electrical cables are necessary.. and those have to be very exact because I'm working with like 125A... enough to do some damage if something isn't correct. But I will eventually get all that figured out, just a matter of talking to the right person.

Greetings from New Hampshire!

Well, I guess it would be more accurate to say "Greetings from Minnesota!" at this point since yesterday I arrived at my REU Site! But first, a bit about me: My name is Ellen and I go to school at Dartmouth College, located about an hour away from any semblance of civilization out in New Hampshire. I was born just outside of Detroit, MI, and spent most of my life moving throughout the Midwest with my Mom, eventually ending up back in Detroit. I decided I wanted to get out of Michigan for college and ended up at Dartmouth, where I'm getting a B.E. in Biomedical Engineering, and an A.B. in Creative Writing with a concentration in fiction. Outside of the classroom (a small, but important part of my life), I enjoy writing (go figure), running, singing, kung fu, and studying Traditional Chinese Medicine with my Kung Fu teacher! I'm also active at my school's Catholic Student Center (#Maryismyhomegirl). This summer, I'm working with Professor William Durfee on the hydraulic foot-ankle orthosis. I'll be focusing on designing simulations for the new hydraulic system, and working on compacting elements of the design using Sim. software.

Thank you all for participating in the CCEFP REU Fluid Bootcamp at Purdue!

It was a pleasure to meet everyone and I look forward to hearing about all the cool work you'll be doing!

Please continue to blog your weekly experiences!  You're welcome to include photos, videos, links to YouTube, etc. 

Hi everyone! My name is Enio Frota, I'm an Industrial Engineering senior at North Carolina A&T State University. I'm an exchange student from Brazil spending this year of 2012 at U.S. I have some research experience in developing and improving interfaces for rescue robots and my project will probably be on human factors. I'm looking forward to work with you all and to see the outcome of our research.

Hello

Hi everyone! My name is Becca Trietch and I am a mechanical engineering major at Yale University. I love horseback riding, singing, farming, building stuff, traveling, and being outside. Before Yale, I grew up on a small dairy farm in northeast CT which clearly sparked of all of my environmental interests.  In particular, I really enjoy learning about renewable energies and current food policies. This summer I am lucky enough to be working on the Wind Power Project at the University of Minnesota. I am really excited and can’t wait to get started!

Michael Ekundayo

Hello everyone, I am Michael Ekundayo and I am humbly privilege to be a part of CCEFP REU program. I am a Junior at North Carolina A&T State Univ studying Industrial and Systems Engineering. I am originally from Nigeria, and I came to the U.S to better myself. I served 8 years in the U.S. Navy as a Logistics Specialist touring in the Meditteranean Sea, Persian Gulf, Europe, Middle East, and finally recruiting in Asheboro, NC. I am married to a beautiful wife, and we have a 3 month old bouncy baby boy! I am excited to be a part of this program and looking forward to working with each and everyone of you!

Greetings - Men Young

Warmest welcome!

My name is Men Young, representing the city of Miami. I'm 5'11", born in Puerto Rico, of Chinese descent, occasional video gamer (there's just not enough time..), enjoy long walks along the beach...

I am currently a Senior Mechanical Engineering student attending Florida International University. I've always had an engineering spark since late middle school/throughout high school, bridging my fondness for math and physical sciences, although I leaned closely towards Chemistry and Computer Engineering early in my college years. One thing about engineering in my school's program, however, is learning so much about the theories and equations and having limited exposure to actual engineering, which is unfortunate as I'm a much more hands-on and visual learner.

The university in which I will be participating in the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program for the CCEFP will be the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) with Douglas Cook as my advisor, working in the Rapid Prototyping Center, possibly aiding his research in Testbed 6 dealing with thermal components for orthosis patients. This REU provided by the CCEFP is an excellent tool for me to really apply myself, providing me with my first (and very invaluable) research experience that will be beneficial for my eventual progress towards graduate school. Throughout the short (albeit exciting) ten weeks, I expect the experience to connect the powerful utility of research to solve the problems in the expanding field of fluid power.

... *takes deep breath*

I can't wait to hear more from everyone and their progress throughout the longevity of the program!

Christopher Stovall

Hi, my name is Christopher Stovall and I am a third year Aerospace engineering student at the Illinois Institute of Technology. I hail from the south suburbs of Chicago and attended the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA) for three years of my high school career. While at IMSA it prepared me for the rigorous college atmosphere that I would encounter. I believe that a combination of my high school and college experiences have prepared me for this very research opportunity as it will draw on everything I've learned thus far. Aside from academics my hobbies include running, sightseeing, reading, and hanging with friends!

Chris McHugh

Hey everyone, my name is Chris McHugh. I'm going into my senior year at Lehigh University studying business and mechanical engineering. I grew up in Nashville, TN and have returned home for the summer to do research at Vanderbilt. I'll be working on a pneumatic accumulator, which is eventually supposed to combine with an ankle orthosis (maybe the one Megan is working on?). While I know I want to work with energy efficiency after school, that's about as far as I've figured; not sure whether that would be in a consulting role or a developmental role.

Megan Hodgson

Hi everyone! My name is Megan, and I am going to be a senior next year at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. I grew up just north of Chicago and I love it here! I've been a hockey fan my whole life and was so excited when the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup a couple years ago. I also really like running and baking and going to concerts.  My project will be "fluid-powered ankle foot orthotics" down at U of I in Urbana-Champaign, and eventually I would like to be a prosthetist/orthotist. Currently last minute packing like always, and can't wait to meet you all in a couple hours :)

Jordan Garrity.

Hello guys, my name is Jordan Garrity. I will be going into my junior year here at Purdue in the fall continuing to pursue a degree in Machine Systems Engineering in Ag & Bio Engineering. I am from a small town called Huntington, Indiana. It's about 90 miles northeast of Lafayette, located just south of Fort Wayne. Growing up in the rural area really influenced my decision of pursuing a degree in agricultural engineering. I enjoy the outdoors, paintball, and golf. My project includes working alongside Stephan Jean on rebuilding a micro sized excavator for educational purposes. I hope to see you all tomorrow at the "boot camp." 

Joshua Hooks

Hey everyone,

My name is Joshua Hooks and I am a rising senior, mechanical engineer, at University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC). I've grown up in Maryland all my life and love the state, but am ready to get out and try other places lol. I'm doing research this summer at Georgia Tech and my project is to design pneumatic actuators for use in an MRI machine. I don't really have a consistent hobby but I enjoy drawing, singing, biking, hiking...and going out to eat.

Hello Tello!

My name is Jessica Tello.  I majoring in civil engineering at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities and will graduate in the spring of 2013, hopefully with a minor in ecological engineering.  I grew up in a Minneapolis suburb called Blaine, but currently live on campus in Minneapolis.  My favorite pastimes are going out for thai food, attending concerts downtown, and thrift-ing.  I am currently obsessed with Noodles & Company.  The summer project I will be working on is a collaboration between the Minneapolis and Morris campuses, revolving around the replacement of a mechanical gear box with a reverse hydraulic pump.  Can't wait for all of us to get started!

Daniel Kim

Hey! My name is Daniel Kim and I'm a mechanical engineer undergraduate student at Georgia Tech. I was born in Los Angeles, CA and moved around multiple times since. However for the past 9 years I have lived in Atlanta, GA. As for hobbies, I enjoy going out with friends, going outdoors on nice days, watching movies, and cooking. One of my favorite places to travel to is Seattle, WA, and once I graduate, I definitely plan on trying to move there. My project for this summer is designing prototype hydraulic energy harvesters. I look forward to meeting everyone tomorrow!

Roy Fisher

My name is Roy Fisher, and I am currently a senior in Aeronautical Engineering at Purdue University.  I was born and raised in a small town in Western Illinois called Taylor Ridge.  My dad is a pilot, so I basically grew up at the airport.  I've continued my interest in aviation for my entire life, finally receiving my pilot's license about three years ago.  After I graduate, I will commission into Air Force and attend pilot training.  My project this summer is at Maha Fluid Power Research Center studying the adaptive control of hydraulic systems.  I look forward to meeting you all next week!

Cory Raizor

I am from Jeffersonville, IN, a suburb of Louisville, KY, and I study mechanical engineering at Purdue University. Jeffersonville is kind of small but it is like literally across the bridge from Louisville so there's always things to do. I really enjoy being outdoors and have loved camping, and hiking since I was young. Each summer I usually go on a long camping trip with some friends. They rarely work out as planned but that's always half the fun and they tend to make for some interesting stories after the fact. I like to keep my future plans rather open as to not close out any possibilities but I am pretty interested in the German automotive industry and am hoping to explore career options there.

Cary Wood

Hey, my name is Cary Wood and I am a student at Purdue University majoring Electrical Engineering.  I am working this summer at the Maha Fluid Power Research Laboratory with research heavily involved with vibrational analysis.  I am from St. Louis, MO, home of the Anheuser-Busch  Brewery and the greatest team of underdogs, the St. Louis Cardinals. (I refuse to talk about the Rams.)  My hobbies include playing music, snowboarding, weightlifting, and pretty much any sport.  I play guitar in a Purdue Jazz Combo and have helped run sound for a number a Purdue Theatre productions.  It's been a great start to the REU program and I can't wait to meet everyone!