The project on linear translator focuses on various aspects of engineering. One of them being the use Matlab and the knowledge of Dynamic Force Analysis (DFA). Using DFA helped to the failure points in our design. The design requirements focused on picking up a certain amount of weight effectively. Also the project also tested the repeatability of the four bar linkage. Using DFA we recognized that we needed to half inch acrylic instead of quarter inch acrylic in order to successfully pick up the weight we wanted to. Second obstacle was repeatability which was hard to tackle as the four bar linkage wasn’t stable enough and we couldn’t the screw to hit the contact points every time.
In the end the result was quite satisfactory as we picked up five pounds successfully and with good repetitions and finished fourth out of twenty teams competing.