Educational Rube Goldberg Machine Team: P13731

1. Educational Rube Goldberg Machine Team: P13731 Rube Goldberg Machines System Design The entire system is set up to maximize viewing area. Users can stand around the machine and look at different sections. In front of each section there is a description of the engineering fundamentals being demonstrated. The ball rolls around the table through different subsystems in a counter clockwise direction. A Rube Goldberg Machine is a device, contraption or invention that is intentionally over-engineered or exaggerated to perform a simple task in a complicated fashion, usually in a chain reaction. The name is based off of the American cartoonist Rube Goldberg who used to draw similar machines. Kyle Schmitz, John Rizzo, James Parks Dan Spiers, Maddie Burke Project Summary The goal is to develop a automatically resettable Rube Goldberg Machine to educate viewers about the fundamental concepts of engineering. The display will also demonstrate the capabilities of Multidisciplinary Senior Design and raise awareness about the program. Fundamentals Theme Integration Rube Goldberg machines often have an overall theme of the contraption. The theme of this machine is college. The user starts by “applying” to college and releasing the ball. In the next section the robot represents a freshman student navigating the RIT campus. Second year is full studying and tests, shown by a Kaizen demonstration with the marbles as the knowledge being learned. Co-op opportunities fly students across the country to different jobs. Upper classmen demonstrate projectile motion with a fun college game. Senior year is full of balancing school and activities. In the last subsystem, the student has graduated and moves on to job land. • The team chose fundamental concepts from multiple engineering disciplinesto be displayed in the Rube Goldberg machine. • Springs • Magnets • Circuits • Robotics • Programming • Kaizen method • Counterweight • LEDs • Fluid flow • Aerodynamics • Projectile motion • Conduction • Energy conversion apply graduation Industrial Mechanical Electrical Computer Arduino 1st year senior year 2nd year co-op 3rd year ArduinoControl Design Development The team brainstormed ways to visually demonstrate the chosen engineering concepts while integrating the theme of the machine. Sketches, discussions, and detailed designs were exchanged in order to chose the current systems. Some 3D models of the entire system and the robot were created in CAD. This Rube Goldberg Machine uses an Arduino Due microcontroller board. With 54 inputs and outputs and a 32 bit ARM core processor, the Arduino is great for this application. The limit switches are activated, and the Arduino is programmed to process that information. Assembly Assembly of any Rube Goldberg Machine involves a lot of testing and alterations along the way. In order to make the systems work continuously the group is constantly making small changes and improvements in each subsystem. One of the main challenges for this project is making the entire machine automatically resettable. P13731 Page