High-Level Project Summary
Hercules, the separation device I created. Hercules uses the kinetic theory of matter. Stating that the atoms that make up the different forms of matter can move around differently. Hercules is made up of a part that is similar to a syringe but the head of the syringe is blocked off. So if the other side of the syringe is pushed, it requires a lot of energy to do so. This is until the head of the springe, which is blocked by a zipper bag type mechanism is opened out by the small artificial muscle, releasing the air, and letting the other part of the device to exit through the hole found next to syringe. This way it is very reusable and very simple, following the principle of "Occam's razor"
Link to Project "Demo"
Link to Final Project
Detailed Project Description
The air trapped inside the syringe can resist the separation piece of the device from separating, that is of course until it is required to do so. Try blocking the end of a syringe, and pushing it, it is hard to push right? Exactly, that is the idea. The separation piece is trapped in the main piece until the air that is used to resist it is released using the artificial muscle. Then the small hole right next to the "compact form" of the syringes is assessable by the separation piece, and having nothing to block it, it can just slip out of that hole and be separated. Using this design, there is no complicated moving pieces, thus reducing the chance of failure. And of course, very reusable, simply re add the air and zipped it up, put the separation device back into the main device, then it can be used again.
Let's say it really fails(because nothing is always perfect), no worries. The additionally feature of the Hercules is it's second part, which stores chemicals required to make elephant toothpaste. The reason it uses elephant toothpaste is because elephant toothpaste can create a big volume from just very small volume of chemicals. This large volume of form created by the elephant toothpaste can be used as an airbag for the launch lock or even the satellite carrying it.
The hope for this project is of course to solve the challenge, and be useful for real missions if it is ever used.
Since this is a hardware project, I didn't really used any software or coding languages. Mostly pipes and tubes. Syringes, zippers bags, strings, and tools like scissors and more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgFuyB-UNDc
Space Agency Data
I use Nasa's data on Shape Memory Alloy-based launch lock. To begin my research, I had a look at that document first. This research paper really inspired me, I was feeling excited to start designing my own after reading it. It also inspired me to keep my launch lock simple.
Hackathon Journey
When the hackathon got nearer to starting, I looked through the available challenges and decided to choose a hardware challegence to work on this time. The options are quite limited, and after looking through all the hardware related challegences, I choice the challenge "Let it go(without a bang)". Firstly because I had a lot of ideas of designs in my mind. Secondly, I love physics, and this challenge is related to physics. So after that, I started thinking of ideas and designs. I had a look at the resources and designs given by Nasa. First, I had to choose my actuator, after thinking for a long time, and looking through many different actuators, my choice was to use an artificial muscle. That is because it is easy to make, powerful and fun. So, after collecting all the materials needed, I started making the muscle. Many many failures were encountered, like the line breaking and the muscle not working. But eventually I did it. It was so great to finally have it working. Next I tackled the elephant toothpaste problem. After experimenting with different containers and placement of the toothpick, it works. Same with the main mechanism of hercules. Different springes were tested, different artificial muscles were used and more. Eventually after trials and errors, I successfully created Hercules.
References
The research of artificial muscle by the University of Wollongong:https://youtu.be/gzdZGKHdfsc
Tools:
scissors
tape
pipes
tubes
syringes
fishing lines
Tags
#hardware #launch lock
Global Judging
This project has been submitted for consideration during the Judging process.