We’ve only about 2 weeks away from finals! Our team is continuing to make progress towards our quarter goals. Here’s what we’ve done this week: The mechanical design team is still improving the new ULB mechanism design and ordering the new materials. For our other mechanism, we 3D-printed our base designs but found that the material kept fracturing because of …
Flapping Wing Micro-Air Vehicle – Spring Week 6
We’re onto Week 6! The FWMAV team continues to work hard towards our goals. Here are the accomplishments for the week: The mechanical design team is continuing the design of our new ULB prototype. We created a new chassis for the new gears and redesigned the linkages. We also decided to use acrylic sheets for the linkages and ordered the …
UAV Forge Spring Week 3: Deadlines and the Competition
The team faces a major deadline along with a few smaller, and in some cases self-imposed, due dates. The major deadline is the technical report, which is to be turned in no later than the fourth of May, along with the much smaller fact sheet (which asks for some simple data about the competition plane), and will be worth 20% …
BAJA SAE Racecar Week 3
It’s a Baja car! We’ve begun installing body panels using quarter turn fasteners and the Sparkboa gearbox is oiled up and in place. With both the body and the powertrain almost finished, we’re close to entering the testing phase in the last five weeks to competition. We’re looking forward to finally testing Marauder and getting live data from the track!
Week 1 Update: AIAA Design/Build/Fly
Over the winter break, the UCI DBF team worked on developing the competition aircraft. Members who were available over the break worked on testing subcomponents, solidfying integration plans, and analysis of the overall design. After thoughtful discussion with advisors, the team concluded that our plane was overbuilt and that we could consider other manufacturing techniques and materials that could help …
Spacecraft Thermal Management Week 10
Howdy Again! It’s finals week and we’re still pushing strong. We got our results back from testing, and there’s good news and bad news (but a silver lining). The Bad News: The testing team ran a color change test on two WO slides and did not see a change in color when a voltage ran across it. Disappointing results indeed, …
Spacecraft Thermal Management – WEEK 9
Howdy! See that above? It’s called a variable emmissive device (VED for short). Used in satellites and CubeSats, this little thing costs hundreds and hundreds of dollars. Here’s where we come in. Our team is seeking to develop a cost effective VEDs at 1/10th the price. As you may know, it’s been a wild and fast few weeks. Let’s tell …
Spring 2017 Week 4-6: Servo Connections
Due to time constraints, the team has decided to change the goals of this year’s project. This year, we will focus on the motion study of the fins using three different fin designs. By next year, we will measure the efficiency between the fins. For the last few weeks, Alex, Damian, and Tim have been working on the tank and …
Week 5 – Project X
This week we have continued to improve our respective subsystem by iteration, modification, and redesign to create a functional subsystem that will be ready to be integrated into one system. Subsystem 1: Solidworks design for attachments to the motor and the rotating star that dispenses food have been designed and are ready to be 3D printed. Subsystem 2: The circuit board has been …
Week 5 – Wrist Exo
The first hand mold was bad, so we made another one. The shipping process slow things down. However, the result is quite satisfying to us. The goal for next week will be finishing 3D scanning. We contacted Dolan about 3D Scanning about this. I’m sure it will be done before the Mid Review.