Ideas for a graduation project ..

How about a robotic wheelchair that can maneuver itself around obstacles and climb staircases? Given the size of the healthcar industry, not only will you be creating a product that can benefit millions of paraplegics around the world, it will also be potential money-spinner. Result? Win-win situation.

This is a very nice one .. We'd actually take it into consideration ..

Thank you DVader1000 .. and don't worry, I'll save you your share of the profit :D

Create an improved low- energy- requiring Clinker(+Granulated B.F.Slag+Gypsum) grinder yielding superfine Cement yielding higher strengths.

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It seems like an applicable idea .. but it's not really related to our fields of interests ..

But I really appreciate you caring to responde to my thread .. Thank you MUKULMAHANT ..

1.Search this site
2.Tell us your ideas and maybe we'll tell you ours.
3.Read the FAQ on the site...
4. Guess how many times we've been asked this and how many ideas we've suggested without ever getting any feedback?

Grumpy Del

1. I've searched the thread section and found nothing interesting for a graduation project.

2. This thread is not about the ideas i already have, it's about new suggestions .. but if you are interested, our main idea so far is an arc welding robotic arm (manipulator) with CAD interface .. which may develop into an underwater welding robot ..

3. I've just read the FAQ, and it have nothing against asking other members for advise .. actually, any forum is all about discussions and asking for/giving advise ..

4. Don't hold me responsible for the mistakes of others ..

Thanks Mr. "Grumpy" ...

2. Your Existing ideas may trigger related ideas in us...

Diesel engine governor,electronics and actuator.Still remains much of the automatic mechanisms and the electronics ones,some of them remains the same than when those were just an alternative.-

As much as it looks like a nice idea .. but we can't do it, we're already majored in a different field.

Thank you very much ferquiza for your participation, I really appreciate it.

I always thought a crawler type orbital welder that could weld a pipe root pass from the inside of a pipe would be neat to develop. It would be more for the expensive non ferrous pipe materials that require purging the inside of the pipe to weld. Once the root bead was in the rest of the welding could be done from the outside. This could nearly eliminate all bad welds because the defects are usually in the first (root) pass. If you know what it takes and costs to cut out a bad weld in say- titanium pipe it may be worth checking into. After watching and dealing with the small orbital welders and seeing what some of the many CNC machines are capable of I would think this could be done with some(maybe allot of) work. Just an idea.

pipewelder

How about a mix of two of the suggested topics? I'm thinking an ROV/AUV small enough to get inside a large diameter, submerged pipe and repair a weld from the inside. Just a thought.

In the old days I was that robot. My record size for going in and back welding is 22 inch diameter. I doubt I could do that small today. I am 6' tall and back then around 165 lbs. now more like 195 lbs. It is a very creepy feeling to go in that small of a diameter pipe and weld. I am not claustrophobic but you could feel it creeping in on you while you were in there. Also it was usually very hot and that compounded the problem because a air mover might blow the shielding gas away. Nothing worse than over heating in a small pipe like that. A few years ago we built a camera on pvc pontoons to look inside an old effluent line we just flooded the bottom of the pipe and floated it down and filmed the entire interior of the old pipe. I would think a small crawler could be built and equipped with welding gear and camera easy enough. the problem would be of course getting around fittings and the pulling the power cables and hoses along with it.

pipewelder

You're a braver man than I, Pipewelder. As a marine engineer, I have welded in some tight places before, but I think I may have passed up such an opportunity as you mention.

Let's see what the project group thinks about this idea. I'm sure this exists already in some form or another. After the crawler or sub enters the pipe and reaches the area of the repair, it can extend a set of radial rollers that allow it to rotate about the pipe's central axis, keeping is stable and making a neat, clean weld much easier to perform.

Hi, Chief and MHarvey!

Just noticed that you came aboard. Welcome to the CR4 bunch. This is a perfect place for creative engineers like yourselves to find all kinds of great discussions going on in every engineering field imaginable, and join in.

I recall being in one or two tight places on board ship as well. Strangely enough, the presence of another person in there with me always had the effect of allowing me to overcome what would otherwise be absolute claustrophobia.

As far as a robotic/hydraulic research project is concerned, how about a 'free-motion' micro hydraulic servo mechanism that would smooth out robotic motion in task assignments? Current electric servo mechanisms are jerky because of all the stops required along the way when making directed motion. Theoretically at least, an hydraulic system with smooth 'intelligent' motion could be a real boon to robotics.

Mark

I totally love the idea .. specially that it's close to what we had on mind. But There's an obstacle, pipes are usually submerged into very deep water, so the ROV/AUV have to be in an appropriate size in order to overcome the water pressure and water currents .. which i guess will put some limitations to the pipe sizes it can operate on from the inside .. am I making any sense?

btw, the fixing mechanism you've suggested sounds simple, yet effective ..

I think you misunderstand, my idea was for a machine that would work inside the pipe and not necessarily on pipe that is submerged. The fact that the pipe is submerged has nothing to do with the pressure inside the pipe. In this case the machine would make repairs the a weld that was made on a barge at the surface.The inside of the pipe would still be at atmospheric pressure and have no water in it.

pipewelder

Keep it simple at first. As Pipewelder mentioned, an extensive pipe repair would normally be conducted at atmospheric pressure (dry) and not submerged. Start with that and then work into shallow water where pressure wouldn't be an extreme obstacle. Just keep building up to deeper water, higher pressure.

At this point in time, there may not be a "practical" industrial application for such an ROV/AUV, but necessity doesn't necessarily have to be the mother of this particular invention. In other words, if you build it, the application will arise.

Thoughts?

Hi, M.Harvey!

I don't know whether you noticed my suggestion for your project or not, as you did not comment on it. Just in case, I thought I'd draw your attention to it again.

Mark

Hello Mark ..

1st of all, thank you for your warm welcome ..

I've just noticed your post now. You're right, a hydraulic servo mechanism with such specs could be really useful and easy to distribute if commercially manufactured, Although I have no initial thought about how it would be done ..

We're now collecting ideas and suggestions to be studied .. so that we would choose a suitable one ..

I really appreciate your care to contribute in our search ..

Thank you once again ..

Mike

"a hydraulic servo mechanism with such specs could be really useful and easy to distribute if commercially manufactured, Although I have no initial thought about how it would be done..."

Well, I guess that's one problematic part of preparing a project program --and why your team is checking out the possibilities. Unless you're looking to do something simple, or that has already been done, only maybe in a different way.

Begin by looking at electric servo mechanisms to see how they're done. Design an amazing improvement with 47 angles of smooth motion (instead of just one) because it uses hydraulic forces instead, maybe with electronic valving. While the valves are normally open or closed or partly one or the other, the flows are directed continuously; and that promotes smooth motion in a variety of directions (the robotics part). Keep things on a micro level so they can fit in the same space as the electronic servos.

Maybe get your robot to closely imitate a human arm throwing a baseball as a final test of its worth.

Mark