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2.007 Design and Manufacturing 1

Homework #1
NAME:___School

Solution__________________________________________

Date Issued: Tuesday 5 FEB, 11AM

Date Due: Thursday 14 FEB, 11AM
Please answer the following 6 questions showing your work to the extent possible within
the allotted time. Point allocations are listed for each question. The points sum to 100.
This should not take more than 6 hours. Each homework counts as 5% of your total
grade. You will submit your work in hardcopy at the beginning of lecture.
1. (30 points)
a.
(5 points) Determine the degrees of freedom of the arm mechanism on the robot depicted below.
The mechanism has one
degree of freedom. There are
three components that can
move, the upper arm, the
lower arm and the end
effector. I am assuming here
that the base is fixed in place.
Three DOF per body in the
plane minus two degrees of
freedom for each of four
revolute joints 3*3-4*2=1.
If a student assumed the base
is free to move, you could add
one more body and one more
connection (rolling contact with
the floor), so an acceptable
answer would be:
4*3-5*2=2 Thats one DOF for
the arm and one DOF for
motion back and forth of the
base..

Rigid
attachment

Revolute
joints

Upper link
End
effector
link

Base

Lower link
Revolute
joints

Cable for
actuation,
you can
consider
this to be
separate
from the
mechanism
for part (a)

Rigid
attachment

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b. (5 points) Note the configuration of the arm mechanism below. What is this type
mechanism called? What might have motivated the choice of this mechanism?
This mechanism is called a parallelogram linkage as described on page 9 of the reading Design of
Mechanisms. One key advantage is that the end effector will maintain its orientation even as it
translates during the linkages motions. For example it could keep a fork lift device horizontal.

4 Joints

3 Bodies
Assume
these are
fixed

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c. (10 points) Estimate the torque, t, the planetary gear motor must apply to raise the arm at a constant rate if a 1kg mass is held on the
end of the arm. In part (b), you may neglect friction (this assumption is to be reconsidered in parts c and d). The links of the arm
are made of 1/16 inch thick Aluminum sheets bent to 90 degrees and their mass is 0.1kg each.

18
17
16
15
14

~5
inches

Rigid
attachment

Cable for
actuation
which wraps
around the
spool

~ 25
inches

Planetary gear
motor drives this
spool which has
a 1 inch diameter

Ruler marked
in inches
should allow
you to pull off
dimensions
needed from
the photo

13
12
11
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1

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The load is 1kg applying about 10N downward on the end effector. The end effector about 5
times farther out than the attachment point of the cable. By virtual work, we can infer that the
vertical component of the cable tension must be 50N. The cable is very nearly vertical. I think it
is safe enough to neglect the cosine error.
The volume of the arm to the left of the pivot that is not counterbalanced by similar arm
geometry on the right of the pivot is 20in*1/16in*8*in=10*in^3. The density of aluminum is 2.7
gr/cm^3. The weight of the unbalanced arm is about 4N. This is about half as far out as the
1kg load, so it adds about 20% of additional tension. This is almost negligible, but not quite.
Also, there is the weight of the plate at the end and the fasteners. I will bump up the estimate to
65N to 70N of cable tension.
There is a quick and easy check student could do in the lab. The robot was down there all
week. If they put the end of the arm on a scale and set the cable so it was slack, they would
see a reading of about 400gr. That would be 4N. Given the distance from the pivot, I would
estimate almost 20N of cable tension to hold up the arm structure using the cable instead of the
scale.
The spool has a 1 inch = 2.5 cm dia or 1.25 cm radius.
60N*1.25cm=0.75Nm of torque.

The torque is therefore

It is worth noting that the BP-06 planetary gear motor in the jit provides a rated 11 kgf*cm
(weird units givin by the manufacturer) which is about 1N*m. This rating is for a 3V supply and
we generally would be able to source 5V from the radio or 7.4V directly from the LiPo batteries.
So this arm probably can lift 1kg extrenally applied load if the friction is negligable.

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d. (15 points) Estimate the torque, t, the planetary gear motor must apply to raise the arm at a
constant rate. In this part, you should account for friction. As part of your work,
characterize the loading of both the lower and the upper link. The links of the arm rotate
directly on inch aluminum rods and the coefficient of friction of Aluminum on
Aluminum is about 1.0 if they are poorly lubricated.
74N

60N

4N

10N

The revolute joint in the main pivot of the lower link bears 74 N of upward thrust. If the coefficient of
friction is about 1, then there is also 74 N of load perpendicular to that. But this acts at half the hole
diameter or at 1/8 inch whereas the cable applies its load at 5in or 40 times the distance. So the resulting
additional cable tension needed to overcome friction on the main joint lower arm is about 2N.
The revolute joint in the pivot near the end effector at the lower link bears 10 N of upward thrust. Since all
the revolute joints experience the same angular velocity on this paraalelogram linkage, they each
contribute to additional cable tension needed proportional to the joints loading So the resulting additional
cable tension needed to overcome friction on the distal joint of the lower arm is about 0.3N.
The revolute joints in the upper link also bear some loading, but it is considerably less. The upper link is
a two force member and it will be in tension. The amount of tension depends on the details of where the
1kg external load is placed and I will estimate the loads are 10N each joint. So the resulting additional
cable tension needed to overcome friction on the distal joint of the lower arm is about 0.6N.
Summing all the additions to cable tension needed, I estimate the total is 63N up from 60N when we
assumed no friction. Just a 5% increase in cable loading needed to overcome friction. The motor torque
will go up in the same proportion or about 0.79Nm of torque.

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2. (20 points) Create a 3D solid model of the component depicted below. This is part of a servo

actuated valve you could use to score on the angioplasty task. There will be examples of this
part at the CAD session on Thursday 7 FEB. There will also be people to work with you if
you get stuck.
There are two options for completing this problem (check only one block below):

I have completed this in lecture and my instructor has recorded my result

I posted my models (not screen shots) on Stellar under HOMEWORK/HW1_2/
The most common error was to put the main,
larger hole in the wrong orientation like this.

Another common error was to make these

holes 2X too big, probably by interpreting the
diameter given on the drawing as a radius.

Advanced exercise (optional): The back side

of the part has a recess to mate with the fitting
on the VS-2 servo. Add this feature by
copying geometry from the VS-2 CAD model.

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3. (10 points) Use Solidworks to make a 2D model (within a sketch) of the window glass
mechanism below. Make the sketch move on the screen when you rotate the handle.
Convince yourself that it has the degrees of freedom that it should have.

There are two options for completing this problem (check only one block below):

I have completed this in lecture and my instructor has recorded my result

I posted my models (not screen shots) on Stellar under HOMEWORK/HW1_3/
Students generally did very well on this. Some
of the mechanisms were under-constrained. A
few were over-constrained. A few were
1DOF, but kinematically different than the one
in the figure.

This is all one link

connecting P1 A1 and B1

Figure from C. H. Suh,

Computer Aided Design
of Mechanisms

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4. (15 points) Which one of these pulley arrangements can hold the weight (W) with the
lowest applied force (T)? Circle one and also explain the reason for your choice in terms an
MIT freshman (who has taken 8.01 and 8.02) would understand. Use five sentences at the
most for each subsection (a through c). Note: These machines use pulleys, not capstans.

This one is just a pulley. No

mechanical advantage,
although the tension
is points)
a. (5
reoriented by the pulley.

Basic block and tackle. 2X

mechanical advantage because
the tension is applied twice to
the weight.

Many pulleys in a simple

sequence. No mechanical
advantage, although the
tension is reoriented multiple
times by the pulleys. In fact,
there will be some losses at
each pulley.

Splitting the load into two

cables helps by dividing the
load among them. But you
still need to pull both cables.
When you join them again,
youre back where you started.

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This one is just a pulley. No

mechanical advantage,
although the tension is
reoriented by the pulley.
A pulley attached to a lever.
Nice idea, but the lever has
the load farther out than the
cable. About 1/2 X
mechanical advantage.

Another good idea that is,

however, implemented
backwards here. With the
angle at about 10 deg, T=6W.
Put the weight where the
tension is and vice versa,
youve really got something!

A pulley attached to a lever.

This time its right. The lever
has the cable farther out than
the load. About 2 X
mechanical advantage due to
the lever. In addition, the
block and tackle gives
another 2X.

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T=W

This one is just a pulley. No

mechanical advantage,
although the tension is
reoriented by the pulley.

T=2W

Basic block and tackle, but

gets it backwards. 1/2X
mechanical advantage because
the cable tension is applied
once to the weight, so the
cable tension equals the
weight. But then that cable
tension is applied twice to the
pulley so we need T=2W

T=W/2 0.87W

T=W/2

An inclined plane a good

machine. With the angle at
about 30 deg (maybe a bit
more), TW/2. But the block
is sliding on the plane, so
friction might hurt if the goal
is to raise the load up the
slope. Or maybe it helps hold
the load. Since the problem
statement says the goal is to
hold the load, I want to say the
- in the is the operative
one.
An inclined plane a good
machine. With the angle at
about 30 deg (maybe a bit
more), TW/2. Ill assume
the rolling elements keep the
losses very low. This will
only work for a short
distance though, then the
cylinder that comes out that
back needs to be reinserted at
the top.

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5. (10 points) A sketching exercise

A) (5 points) Make a sketch from memory of a bicycle. One view is enough. Artistic rendering is
not needed, but proportion and functional detail is important. Focus on the features that make the
bicycle work properly. For example, be sure to show how the front wheel and fork are attached
to the rest of the frame and how is the chain is attached to the front and rear spockets.
B) (5 points) Go look closely at a bicycle. Critique your own sketch. Annotate with any differences
that you regard as functionally important. Is there anything about a bicycle you noticed now that
you hadnt appreciated before?

I dont have a solution, but below is one nice student response.

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6. (15 points) Sketch a four bar mechanism that could guide the combination wrench

through the three positions indicated. Please use the attachment points indicated by the
small circle and triangle. Drawing by hand is fine if you do it carefully or use tools such
as a straight edge and compass or use a computer if you wish.

The method I used for the geometric

construction was intercepting two
perpendicular bisectors.

After finding the center points of the two pivots, we wanted you to draw a sensible
looking mechanism. If you just make the links straight, the links might collide with
the edge of the box, so we generally were hoping to see some countermeasure to that
or maybe a note indicating a potential risk.