| NSF Org: |
CMMI Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | March 18, 2016 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | August 10, 2021 |
| Award Number: | 1563413 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Kathryn Jablokow
CMMI Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation ENG Directorate for Engineering |
| Start Date: | April 1, 2016 |
| End Date: | August 31, 2022 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $430,735.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $534,730.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
FY 2017 = $8,000.00 FY 2020 = $85,995.00 |
| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
W5510 FRANKS MELVILLE MEMORIAL LIBRARY STONY BROOK NY US 11794-0001 (631)632-9949 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
Mechanical Engineering Stony Brook NY US 11794-2300 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): |
EDSE-Engineering Design and Sy, EDSE-Engineering Design and Sy, ESD-Eng & Systems Design, Special Initiatives |
| Primary Program Source: |
01001718DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01002021DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT |
| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.041 |
ABSTRACT
Recent trends in democratization of manufacturing capability such do-it-yourself hobby shops, 3D printing technology, as well as low-cost sensors, actuators, and microcontrollers, call for a corresponding democratization of design tools that can help engineers and tinkerers alike to innovate and invent motion generating devices. Motion generation is a fundamental aspect of machines, at the heart of which are kinematic mechanisms that make it possible for motions to be transmitted or transformed. A kinematic mechanism is a collection of moving pieces linked together through kinematic joints such as hinge joints and sliders. Mechanism design innovation involves the selection of an appropriate mechanism type (i.e., the number of moving pieces and joints as well as the pattern of their interconnections) and the determination of key dimensions in the mechanism needed to generate the desired motions. Once a mechanism type is selected, the appropriate dimensions can often be determined by solving a system of polynomial equations. The task of type selection, however, is not so amenable to mathematical treatment, and requires a level of intuition that may take many years to develop and is difficult to pass on. This award supports the development of a set of web-based, data-driven design tools that unify the type and dimensional synthesis for mechanism design innovation. The planned MOOC (massive open online course) will help bring these tools to the masses and help promote interest in science and engineering including high school students and those from under-represented groups.
The research team will bring together the diverse fields of reverse engineering, computational shape analysis, and design kinematics to develop a data-driven paradigm for kinematic synthesis of mechanical motion generation devices. The goal is to advance the science of mechanism design and lead to practical and efficient design tools capable of solving highly complex motion generation problems faced by machine designers. Central to this research is the creation of a new computational framework for simultaneous type and dimensional synthesis of various mechanisms. This includes (1) the development of unified versions of design equations that span broad classes of mechanisms; (2) the development of unified algorithms for data-driven simultaneous type and dimensional synthesis of planar, spherical and spatial mechanisms, and (3) the creation of a mechanism design portal, which will allow users to design, store, search, compare, and analyze mechanisms.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
This project led to a new computational framework for unified type and dimensional synthesis of mechanisms for the motion generation problems. Prior to this work, the state-of-the-art mechanism synthesis paradigm was a two-step process of selection of a type followed by computation of dimensional parameters. However, we have shown that this process should be data-driven, wherein the given motion data should be analyzed to "compute" both type and dimensions. In the later years of this project, with the help of a DCL funding, we were also able to leverage Machine Learning techniques to solve problems in synthesis that do not have a good theoretical underpinning.
We achieved the following objectives:
1) Development of unified design equation for planar, spherical, and spatial mechanisms
2) Development of algorithms for computing type and dimensional parameters
3) A motion design tool for helping students and practitioners appreciate the interplay between geometry and motion
This project has led to publication of three ASME special issue journal editorials, one edited book chapter, 19 journal papers (published in ASME Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics, ASME Journal of Mechanical Design, and ASME Journal of Computing in Science and Engineering, Mechanisms and Machine Theory), and 23 conference proceeding papers. One of the papers titled "A Task-Driven Approach to Optimal Synthesis of Planar Four-Bar Linkages for Extended Burmester Problem" received the best paper award at the 2017 ASME Mechanisms and Robotics Conference as part of the ASME IDETC/CIE. Six ASME journal papers were invited by the editors to be part of a special issue. PI Anurag Purwar was also invited to give presentations in two spotlight sessions organized by the ASME JCISE Editorial board at the ASME IDETC. He gave three keynote talks on this research and its potential for empowering students and industry practitioners to become the next generation inventors.
The work done in this project was presented at various conferences totaling 20 presentations, two spotlight talks at IDETC, three keynotes by the PI Purwar, several panels, invited presentations, and lectures at the ASME Kinematics Summer School, and seven workshops at the ASME IDETC and annual ASEE convention. The PI Purwar has also given numerous lectures and workshops at local Long Island high school robotics events and organized a summer robotics program for 7th-12th grade students from all Long Island schools for the last five years. These programs have utilized the MotionGen software, SnappyXO robotics kits, and his Freshman Design Innovation curriculum.
Last Modified: 03/07/2023
Modified by: Anurag Purwar
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