Group 04 meeting 3

       

Choosing the project

           Group have met with the coordinator to ask some advice about two ideas that they have come up with because the both ideas were very interesting. As was mention before the first idea was Grasshopper, which showed on Figure1.  The second idea was the jumping machine in a kangaroo's leg, which shown on Figure 2.

Figure 1

                                                                       
                                                                             Figure 2

       Finally, the idea that has chosen is a grasshopper machine. The main goal of the machine is to create an energy storage device with the intention of using it to build a machine with the ability to jump. The design is based on the leg muscle of the grasshopper. The grasshopper's jumping abilities are interesting they rely on a mechanical disadvantage in the typical sense. The muscle of the grasshopper has to provide a (relatively) very large thrust in order to supply enough force to create lift after that force has been diminished in magnitude by the lever in its leg. To do this, the muscle is not aligned directly with the axis of movement. Instead, the fibers come off of the axis at an angle, and all work together to create a much shorter but far more powerful movement.
     In addition, the group has talked about the budget. We all have decided to put $25.00 each towards the project wich leaves us with $150.00 to spend on mechanical hardware and servo motor and component. 

       Overall, on the next meeting group planning to discuss building energy storage device and building prototype.