engineering.

Semiconductor Fiber Radial Bend Durability Test Unit

purpose.

Testing machine for fiber fidelity at Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA). The team at AFFOA needed an automated process for radial testing - i.e. counting quantity of bends fiber could undergo at a given radius. I designed, printed and milled all parts, with some conceptual assistance from Dr. Mihai Ibanescu.

details.

Rotating servo motor oscillates the fiber over a mandrel of desired diameter and counts every iteration. Nano wires in fiber are attached to current detector, which upon breakage sends signal to CPU to halt test and report final number of bends and alerts the tester of fiber failure.
Custom parts were hand milled or printed on a Form Labs resin printer.
Computing run by a classic microcontroller and an Adafruit trinket in tandem.

Dial Safe-Cracking Robot

intent.

Build a robot capable of code finding, lever testing and cracking a standard dial safe. it should operate without any user instance of intervention and without the necessary testing of all one-million possible combinations.
Bot was able to test each valid combination without using a powerhouse strategy (checking all possible combos, i.e. 100*100*100 or 1000000 unique three number strings), by leveraging the allowances of minor inherent dial play; thus reducing the possible code field exponentially.
process.

The robot utilizes dual CPUs with a flag signal to determine the need for continued attempts. One microcontroller rotates the code dial. While the other pulls the safe’s opening lever and determines whether or not the safe has been opened.
We were able to detect the first number in the sequence during the first turn by applying constant force onto the lever and detecting minor downward slippage. The second and third combination are powered through, however the bot only has to check 33 numbers on each dial given the error allowances built into the safe.

Operation Firebender

My favorite university project.

A team effort featuring myself and a fellow student, Logan Aker. ue to our mutual nostalgic love for the animated television program, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and inspired by the youtuber Allen Pan we decided to create a “Punch Flamethrower”. a device that detects the acceleration of one’s arm along a directional path and produces a massive jet of flame in correspondence with the detected force. An dangerous endeavor met with a few scratches and burns, but superseded by a truly amazing spectacle and a whole heap of fun.