Workbook For Project Works in Mechatronics and Robotics: Master of Engineering

Master of Engineering
Workbook for Project Works

in
Mechatronics and Robotics
Issue: 2020-09-04
Author
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Stefan Roth
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Robert Pietzsch
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
WS 19/20 – MERO page 1 of 29

Content
1 Introduction..................................................................................................................................... 2
2 Important advice for development of assemblies .......................................................................... 3
3 Final report and presentation ......................................................................................................... 7
4 Suggestions for Project.................................................................................................................... 9
1 Introduction
This brochure informs you about the possibilities of manufacturing of mechanical parts for your work-
shop project and it helps you to find an idea for a project task. Content of the project work will be the
development of a mechatronic assembly. The students should learn to be methodical in the develop-
ment. Tools such as project and time planning, morphological box and other requirements of the VDI
guideline 2206 should be applied consistently. The design of assembly must be executed and con-
structed in accordance with the production possibilities. Essentially, the following steps are to be con-
sidered: Create requirement list, analyse system, identify possible functional principles, list and evalu-
ate design variants, execute preferred variant, model assembly (CAD) and calculate (FEM or electronic
simulation software), prepare finished part drawing, parts in RP- Process or in the electronics labora-
tory, assembly and testing.
Regulations:
Topic of the project work will be the development of a mechatronic assembly. Pure research or inves-
tigation topics are not allowed! Students can define the task themselves or get a topic from a company.
The project task must be defined within three weeks’ after the start. If this fails, the students receive
an obligatory task from a prepared collection. The tasks can be edited individually or in small groups.
Each project work is supervised by at least one professor. The composition of the teams and the task
topic must be approved by the supervisor. A written interim report must be written after the first
semester. The results are: function models and/or parts, drawings and calculations, software pro-
grams, simulations (FEM, kinematics etc.), motion picture animation, measurements
− the results should be summarized in a written final report.

− the project work finishes with an oral exam.
− independent working method, supervised
− frequently presentations of project progress

2 Important advice for development of assemblies
− Create your assembly in the smallest size as possible!
− Before you make parts: Avoid the trial-and-error principle! Create and simulate all parts in CAD
on your computer to make sure, that all parts fit to each other!
− The assemblies have to be designed and assembled so, that they can dismantled again after
finishing the project.
− Save costs! Calculate the costs always!
− Use the lowest number of parts as possible!
If you want to use 3d-printers:
please be aware, that the print needs a long time (hours, sometimes days). Please take heed on all the
other students, witch want to use the devices too. Remove your part from the printer immediately
after the print has finished.
Check the filament weight, available at the coil, whether it is enough for the printed part.
The dimensions of the printed part can differ from the CAD-model. The thickness of the nozzle (0.4mm)
causes, that outer contours (diameters) are larger and inner contours are smaller. If you are not sure,
how much the dimensions differ, print a simple small part with some significant features. Check the
dimensions of the part with a vernier caliper.
Please watch the composition process even if it takes a long time. There are available cameras to look
at the printers from far away. It can appear a number of problems, that the print stops and you waste
time if you don’t recognize it immediately: Filament coil is empty, the filament intertwines on the coil,
the part warps and cannot be used
One of the biggest problems of 3d-printing is warping of parts. Please let advise you by the lab engi-
neers to avoid this problem.
Available production methods for mechanical parts
For the production of mechanical components are available at the faculty labs a certain number of
technologies:
− Laser Cutting (no metal!)

− 3D- Printing
− Sheet metal forming
− ITEM- Profiles
− welding
Laser Cutting
− With Laser Cutting you can produce flat parts of wood, fiber wood and different plastics of
− a thickness up to 10mm.
− Sheet metal cutting is not possible!
− The machine is placed in building D, basement room D0001.
− For the operation you need a 2d dxf- contour file of your part.
− The shape of the parts is almost arbitrary.
− Laser cutting is a much faster production process in comparison with 3d-printing

3D-Printing
• With 3d-Printers you can build three-dimensional parts of plastic materials in an additive com-
position process (FDM).
• There are available different 3d-Printers from suppliers ZORTRAX, LEAPFROG, ALPHACAM, UL-
TIMAKER, MAKERBOT
• The printers are placed in Building D, basement room D0002 and at second floor D 0216
• Common materials are ABS, PLA, HIPS, PETG etc.
− Some printers work with a different material for the support structure, what is easier remov-
able or removable with a special liquid.
− To perfom a 3d print, you need the CAD generated part as an STL-file. With a special software
you can prepare the printing process: selection of material, support structure, quality of print
etc.
− Some printers are equipped with an internal camera. It is also available a movable camera to
watch on the composition process.
3 d printer solid part
Item Profiles
Aluminium profiles are very common to design frames and racks for devices and experimental setups.
A big advantage of the profiles is that they are reusable for new projects after disassembly. There are
available different sizes and shapes of cross sections:
− 20 x 20 mm² 30 x 30 mm² 40 x 40 mm²

Furthermore, are available a lot of additional components as:
− fasteners and screws
− mounting brackets
− junctions
− joints
− stands
− closure caps
more information see: https://product.item24.de/produkte/produktkatalog
Sheet Metal Parts

Sheet metal parts are very common to create housings, racks or fastening elements. To get a sheet
metal part, the following steps are required:
− create the part with a special sheet metal tool in CAD
− derive the unwound (flat) blank as a dxf or dwg or as a drawing. Take care on shortening!
− for simply parts a cutting in the metal lab is possible, for more demanding parts a laser cutting
or punching machine has to be used. This must be done in cooperation with an external com-
pany. Please contact our lab engineers if you plan to use such parts.
− the flat blank must be bended on a special folding bank
Sheet metal parts Folding bank

3 Final report and presentation
The master project runs over two semesters and is marked by 10 credit points. The deadline for hand-
ing in the report and oral presentation is not bound to the exam’s period. Hence, deadline and date
for presentation have to be agreed with supervisor upon. It is strongly recommended to finish master
project before start of final master thesis.
One report hast to be handed in for the whole team. The report should explain the task, the approach
to the final solution and the solution itself. Appendices, i.e. technical drawings, software coding or
electronic circuit layout can supplement the report.
The report can be structured as following
1. Introduction
2. Task’s description
a. Description of project
b. Set-up of user requirements
3. Project Planning
a. Presentation of Team: roles and responsibilities of team members
b. Project plan
c. Project organisation: meetings and reporting
4. Concept Phase:
a. Presentation of various draft concepts: sketches, short description of principle of
work, morphological chart for concept design etc…
b. Selection of best concept: criteria for evaluation, weighting and ranking of concepts,
etc..
5. Design Phase
a. Work- out of final design: CAD-drawing, SW-coding, electronic layout, choice of com-
ponents, bill of materials, etc..
b. Description of working principle of final design
6. Summary
a. Wrap-up of project
b. Project review: What did work well, what did not in terms of project management,
technical realisation, how has the original planning been met in reality, etc…
c. Outlook: recommendation for future works on topic
Depending on the nature of the task and in consultation with the supervisor, certain parts of the report
layout presented above can be omitted or dealt with in less depth. Also some parts can be explained
in more detail if necessary or requested by supervisor.
The report should have a length of approximately 30 pages (and not much longer) including illustration
without appendices. Template for report are available for download by webpage of the laboratory for
applied plastics technology of Schmalkalden University:
http://www.angewandte-kunststofftechnik.de/downloads.html
password: AKTkunststoff20

Along with handing in of report, a final presentation of the project has to be given to the supervisor.
Analogue to the final report, the task has to be presented, sketching the approach and the final solu-
tion has to be shown. Please note the following:
− The outline of the report presented above can serve as an aid for structure of the presentation.
− Also, physical prototypes can be presented during that session.
− Make sure, that each member of the team present one part.
− All presenters should have equal shares in presentation.
− The presentation must not exceed 20 min followed by a discussion of project of 20…30 min.
Supervisor can ask for presentation of regulatory updates of project status. The frequency and way of
updating is subject to responsibility of supervisor.
Project report and presentation contribute both to the final mark of project work.

4 Suggestions for project

#1 Project Work - Description
Master Mechatronics & Robotics
Project Title Model of a Code Disk Reader (CDROM)
Project Outline Create a model of an CDROM- drive. The device consists of three parts:
• one or more gap-coded disks, manufactured with a laser cutting ma-
chine
• reading device, what accelerates the disk and reads the code with a
moving head
• output unit
The code on the disk can contain sound or characters.
Required Skills -
Project Period WS 19/20 + SS 20

Max. number of stu- 2…3
dents
Contact Prof. Robert Pietzsch, Hochschule Schmalkalden, r.pietzsch@hs-sm.de

Project Title Model of a xyz storage robot
Project Outline Create a model of an automated shelf storage as it used for food and drink
vending machines.
The manipulator should be able to take out from user selected items and it
should recognize empty places in the storage. The manipulator should be a
fork gripper.
Size of the storage stack:

• three rows of three kinds of items with different diameters and
shapes
• six columns
• dimensions: max. 30cm x 30cm, better smaller
Required Skills -

dents

Project Title Mouse trap
Project Outline Some species of small animals (shrews, moles) are strictly protected and
must not be killed. In order to catch the animals alive, special life traps are
necessary to remove the animals from garden or basements of buildings.
Create a special tube trap with optical sensors. The tube should be closed
with self-latching flaps. As auxiliary energy for closing the flaps should be
used a spring. The control unit of the trap should transmit a permanently
wireless signal to a control unit, whether it is still empty or already closed.
Note that the trap should also be buried. All electronic and moving parts
must therefore be protected and encapsulated!
Size: length ~ 25 cm
A special variation could be a flexible center section, that the trap can be
bended and adapted to the running holes in the ground.
Required Skills -

dents

Project Title Model of a ping-pong ball shooter
Project Outline Create a small gun with elastic spring element what is able to shot a ping-
pong ball over a distance of 5m. The cannon should be loaded with an aux-
iliary drive. The operator can control the shot angle and tilt with a joystick.
Note: the ball has to be latched, even if the gun tube tilts down.
There are possible some modifications as:

• additional stack storage for balls and charging mechanism
• camera aimer for remote control
Required Skills -

dents

Project Title Model of a controlled four-wing windmill rotor
Project Outline Create a model of a horizontal windmill with four wings. The angle of the
rotor andthe angle of the wings shall be adjustable. The control unit should
adapt the angles so,that the rotational speed reaches maximum. A wind di-
rection sensor shall be used. Furthermore, it should be possible to change
the angles of wings and rotor by an infrared remote control unit.
Size: diameter max. 30 cm, hight max. 50 cm
Required Skills -

dents

Project Title three finger gripper for robot
Project Outline Create a robot gripper with three fingers what is able to enclose and lift
items with different
shapes.
The fingers should be modelled according to the human hand (joints, limbs,
tendons, etc.). The gripper has to be equipped with mechanical or optical
touch sensors.
Use electrical drives (servo or stepper)!
Required Skills -

dents

Project Title Fish Feeder
Project Outline Objective is to develop and design a fish feeder that allows the automatic
feeding of fish, i.e. for use in fish tanks. This encompasses the mechanical
design of the container, dosing unit and drive system for feeding. The vol-
ume to be delivered has to be adjustable. The field of application can be fish
tank for home application or professional fish farming outside. The decision
is up to you!
Required Skills -

dents
Contact Prof. Stefan Roth, Hochschule Schmalkalden, s.roth@hs-sm.de

Project Title Closing Door Device
Project Outline A daily nuisance at home are doors that kept remain open after passing
through. In order to maintain a regular and smooth closure of doors in home
buildings a so called device has to be designed that closes look doors auto-
matically. After the user has started to close door, the device should be ac-
tivated automatically and finishes up the closing of the doors. Similar sys-
tems already exist in automotive, i.e. for support and finish closing back
doors. However, the device has to designed especially for home applica-
tions.
Required Skills -

dents

Project Title Automatic Soap Dispenser for Traveling
Project Outline Automatic soap dispenser become more and more popular and can be
found in public toilets as well as in home application. So far, no solutions are
found for traveling purposes. Hence, a fully automatic dispensing unit has
to be developed to be used during traveling. Special requirements, i.e. low
weight, refillable soap tank has to be taken into account. The dispensing
step has to be undertaken by an automatic driven system.
Required Skills -

dents

Project Title Connection Device for Infusion System
Project Outline Infusion therapy is widely used in clinical application for administering crys-
talloids, nutrition and drugs to human body. The routine requires connec-
tion of containers, i.e. class bottles, bags or semi rigid containers to the in-
fusion line. This is done by spiking the rubber membrane of the container.
Here considerably strong force has to be applied by the nurse to puncture
the rubber membrane by the spike. In order to ease that connection pro-
cess, a mobile device has to be developed that carries out the connection
process fully automatically.
Required Skills -

dents

Project Title Electronic Syringe Pressure Gauge
Project Outline Syringe pumps, also called “perfusor” are used to administer drugs to pa-
tient using 50 ml syringes. The perfusor has internally a pressure sensor to
detect the force needed to move the syringe forward. This pressure device
has to be controlled regularly. Therefore, a pressure gauge unit has to be
designed that could be place in the perfusor instead of the syringe and
measures the occurring pressure during test runs. The device has to be used
for mobile application (in contrast to the test stand shown below).
Required Skills -

dents

Project Title Domino Dispenser
Project Outline For domino runs it is quite tedious to place all the domino bricks by hand in
the right order an distance. Hence a fully automatic slot machine has to be
designed, that places the bricks in an upright position and defined distance
to each other.
Required Skills -

dents

Project Title xy: Sorting device
Project Outline In business life, there is often the necessity to separate parts, e. g. good
parts from scrap parts or parts to be reworked from parts to be scrapped.
Fortunately, we only have good parts in this task - two different kind of
sweets: “Schokolinsen” and “Treets”. Nevertheless, it might be useful to
separate them because somebody will like “Treets” more than “Schokolin-
sen” or vice versa. Create a sorting device: The sweets (mixed) are filled into
a funnel. After opening the locker of the funnel they are transported to the
sorting device. In the sorting device, Schokolinsen are separated from the
Treets and fall into Box 1. The Treets will then be filled in Box 2.
Required Skills -

dents
Contact Prof. Lutz Huxholl, Hochschule Schmalkalden, l.huxholl@hs-sm.de

Project Title xy: Transfer system
Project Outline Many products are fabricated in several steps: Up to 10 different steps is not a
special process – even more steps are common practise. Workpieces can be
transported from one station to the next one e. g. by robot, by conveyor or by a
transfer system.
Create a transfer system, which takes the workpieces from a destacker, feeds
them through the operations and put them finally in a box. It is a continuous pro-
cess – in one complete cycle, the transfer system
• picks one workpiece from the destacker and puts it to step 1,
• feeds one workpiece from step 1 to step 2,
• feeds one workpiece from step 2 to step 3 and
• takes one piece from step 3 into the box.
•
Required Skills -

Max. number of 2…3
students
Contact Prof. Lutz Huxholl, Hochschule Schmalkalden, l.huxholl@hs-sm.de

Project Title regenerative breaking on electric bikes – demonstrator
Project Outline Regenerative braking harnesses the kinetic energy and converts it into electrical
energy before feeding it back into the main traction battery of an electrical bike
rather than convert kinetic energy into heat.
Based on a hub motor driven electric bike, a demonstrator should be developed

and simulated consisting of a brushless DC-motor (BLDC), motor controller (BCU),
power electronics (controlled inverter, DC-DC converter, battery management)
and battery.
Required Skills Team of students with background in mechanics, electronics, programming and
simulation (MATLAB Simulink)

Max. number of 4
students
Contact Schmalkalden University of Applied Sciences
Simon Rönnecke (M.Sc.)
s.roennecke@hs-sm.de

Project Title regenerative breaking on electric bikes - hybrid brake lever
Project Outline Regenerative braking harnesses the kinetic energy and converts it into electrical
energy before feeding it back into the main traction battery of an electrical bike.
This method has to be combined with the regular hydraulic breaking system to
brake hard in emergency situations and safely come to a complete stop.
For that, a customized hybrid brake lever is required, which allows the stepless
combination of both breaking methods.
An electronic actuator signal has to be generated within the regular hydraulic
breaking system and made available for the motor controller (BCU) either wired
(serial interface) or wireless using bluetooth (BLE)
Required Skills Team of students with background in mechanics, electronics and programming

students
Simon Rönnecke (M.Sc.)
s.roennecke@hs-sm.de

Project Title Development of a simulation environment for mobile robotics
Project Outline With the help of a simulation tool (Gazebo) different artificial environments, so-
called artificial worlds, should be created on the computer. In these artificial
worlds models of robots should implemented, which simulate the behaviour of
real robots. The robots can move within this artificial world by external control,
like real robots. But the robots should not be steered by a remote control. The
goal is to realize the control on the basis of algorithms, so that the robot can
move autonomously in this virtual world. In order for a robot to act autono-
mously, it needs sensors to perceive its environment. Therefore, models of sen-
sors of the robots should also implemented in the overall model. On the basis of
the sensor signals the virtual robot should now move in the environment. So a
complete simulation model should be created for testing autonomous algo-
rithms.
Required Skills Team of students with background in programming

Max. number of 3
students
Prof. Maria Schweigel
ma.schweigel@hs-sm.de

Project Title Inverted Pendulum
Project Outline Develop a control algorithm for an inverted pendulum.
Model the system with WORKING MODEL 2D*
Apply and enhance the control algorithm to a “Segway Personal Transporter”.
Include a person in the model.

*) Next Semester the module “Simulation Methods for Mechanical Systems” will
be offered where the Multi-Body-System WORKING MODEL 2D is used as a tool
to simulate the dynamics of mechanical systems.
Required Skills -

students
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Georg Weidner,
g.weidner@hs-sm.de

Project Title Power-Assisted Bicycle “Pedelec”
Project Outline assisted bicycle. A sensor will measure the torque of the pedal or the ten-
sile force of the chain.
There are two options for the position of the motor:
- Rear wheel
- Foot treadle
Model the system with WORKING MODEL 2D*
Required Skills -

Max. number of 2
students
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Georg Weidner,
g.weidner@hs-sm.de

#XX Project Work - Description You can add your logo here!
Project Title Type in your title of project
Project Outline Please give a brief description of the task you can add images also
Required Skills If particular skills i.e. knowledge on programming or students with CAD or elec-
tronic background required, please specify here
Max. number of 2…4  please specify
students
Contact Company’s address, contact person at company

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Master of Engineering

Workbook for Project Works

Faculty of Mechanical Engineering

WS 19/20 – MERO page 1 of 29

− the results should be summarized in a written final report.

WS 19/20 – MERO page 2 of 29

If you want to use 3d-printers:

Available production methods for mechanical parts

− Laser Cutting (no metal!)

WS 19/20 – MERO page 3 of 29

3 d printer solid part

− 20 x 20 mm² 30 x 30 mm² 40 x 40 mm²

WS 19/20 – MERO page 4 of 29

more information see: https://product.item24.de/produkte/produktkatalog

Sheet Metal Parts

Sheet metal parts Folding bank

WS 19/20 – MERO page 5 of 29

The report can be structured as following

WS 19/20 – MERO page 7 of 29

WS 19/20 – MERO page 8 of 29

WS 19/20 – MERO page 9 of 29

The code on the disk can contain sound or characters.

Project Period WS 19/20 + SS 20

WS 19/20 – MERO page 10 of 29

Size of the storage stack:

Project Period WS 19/20 + SS 20

WS 19/20 – MERO page 11 of 29

Project Period WS 19/20 + SS 20

WS 19/20 – MERO page 12 of 29

There are possible some modifications as:

Project Period WS 19/20 + SS 20

WS 19/20 – MERO page 13 of 29

Size: diameter max. 30 cm, hight max. 50 cm

Project Period WS 19/20 + SS 20

WS 19/20 – MERO page 14 of 29

Use electrical drives (servo or stepper)!

Project Period WS 19/20 + SS 20

WS 19/20 – MERO page 15 of 29

Project Period WS 19/20 + SS 20

WS 19/20 – MERO page 16 of 29

Project Period WS 19/20 + SS 20

WS 19/20 – MERO page 17 of 29

Project Period WS 19/20 + SS 20

WS 19/20 – MERO page 18 of 29

Project Period WS 19/20 + SS 20

WS 19/20 – MERO page 19 of 29

Project Period WS 19/20 + SS 20

WS 19/20 – MERO page 20 of 29

Project Period WS 19/20 + SS 20

WS 19/20 – MERO page 21 of 29

Project Period WS 19/20 + SS 20

WS 19/20 – MERO page 22 of 29

Project Period WS 19/20 + SS 20

WS 19/20 – MERO page 23 of 29

Based on a hub motor driven electric bike, a demonstrator should be developed

Project Period WS 19/20 + SS 20

WS 19/20 – MERO page 24 of 29

Project Period WS 19/20 + SS 20

WS 19/20 – MERO page 25 of 29

Required Skills Team of students with background in programming

Project Period WS 19/20 + SS 20

WS 19/20 – MERO page 26 of 29

Apply and enhance the control algorithm to a “Segway Personal Transporter”.