Help on Project Ideas for 3rd Year Mechanical Engineering Student

[ruzfactor]

Help on project ideas!

I'm a 3rd year student of mechanical engineering. I have to submit a proposal for a project within a week. The project should be on control and measurement. I need some ideas and any web links related.Plz help!

Things i shouldn't use in my project:
Microcontroller (have to use Interfacing if needed)

Plz give me some links or ideas!

 

[jaap de vries]

Need a litle bit more info, mainly on budget and deadline!

 

[ruzfactor]

I have to submit the project within 4 months. But have to show the progress of the project every week. Me and my team have to finance our project.

 

[Danger]

That self-financing aspect really sucks, unless one of you is from a wealthy family. Never having studied engineering, I'm not sure what level of project you want.
One thing that comes to mind is an air-conditioner or refrigerator, since they control temperature and use feedback (measurement) to determine their responses. I suspect that they're too simplistic for your purposes, though.
My first thought was an autopilot system, which can be completely mechanical and electrical. There is also automotive type traction control, but that does involve microprocessors.
Please advise as to the complexity required.

 

[sid_galt]

Maybe a jet engine? The parts you should be able to find in a junkyard. I know little about mech engg. though.

Hope this helps.

 

[ruzfactor]

It can be electro mechanical project. Let me give you some projects completed by our previous batch.

*Magnetic Train
*All terrain car
*Digital Slidecalipers
*ATM machine (used a dotmatrix printer)
*Barcode Scanner
and more

most of the projects involved electronics and also computer interfacing.

 

[Danger]

How about a hybrid car, then?

 

[jaap de vries]

Maybe a jet engine? The parts you should be able to find in a junkyard. I know little about mech engg. though.

Hope this helps.

Are you kidding me?

Actually this can be done. You need to find a turbocharcher that way you have your compressor and turbine already within bearings on the some axle. You need to come up with a combustion chamber, fuel pump (oil pump maybe) It seems maybe a litlle out of you reach if you say that you son't have a lot of mech eng experience. Make sure you stand behind a wall when you use it! there is stuff online you can find about this.

 

[Task]

I'm not a Student or Graduate, I just hang around for the unlimited info & guidance. But how about a working scale model of an intersection ?

It could be somewhere notable, you could use the mini rc cars. Control lights, walk don't walk, incorporate a train X'ing Gate. You could hide the electronics in the corner buildings...

I'm not sure if that covers your requirements, but if it did you would also leave behind something cool others would want to play with.

 

[Danger]

you would also leave behind something cool others would want to play with.

Yeah... and every once in a while he could freeze the lights, ramp up the track voltage, and hold a Grand Prix race.

 

[sid_galt]

How about a micro aerial vehicle? It's a bit on the aerodynamic side, but since fluid dynamics is a part of mech engg. I figured it might work.

The cost should be affordable and it would involve electronics as well as plane design. There are many papers you can find on the internet on this stuff.

BTW, if you do decide to move along with the jet engine, just google "homemade jet engine". There are lots of sites where people have documented their experience in building a jet engine. As jaap de vries suggested, many of these simply use a turbocharger as a compressor and turbine and shape cans into combustion chambers. Dunno if its possible to do it in a month though.

 

[Danger]

I was just struck by a new idea. I can't believe that this is not already an industry standard. Everyone please note that if this becomes patented, I want recognition (and maybe a couple of bucks for beer money )
I'm thinking of an automatic anti-kick-back brake for a chainsaw. Some power tools such as table saws seem to have that, but I've never seen it applied to a gas engine device. If it's set up so that if the engine rpm drops below the normal idle speed, it declutches and slams a brake on the blade...

 

[ruzfactor]

Our instructor said the project should be based on electronics and mechanical.

I was thinking(may b I am stupid) how to make a security card recognition device? I was thinking like building a security door which wud slide to open after matching a security card.

 

[ruzfactor]

more ideas guys with full help support! Help me! :(

 

[Danger]

more ideas guys with full help support! Help me! :(

You're so needy that I feel like scratching you behind the ears and pouring you a bowl of Meow-Mix.
Yeah, a pocket door is a good idea. Coded radio sources like the anti-theft tags in a store work well, as do mag-strip cards. If you really want to keep current, though, why not make a fingerprint or retinal scanner as the input? Either one can be defeated (even both together), so how about trying to find a way to make them foolproof?

 

[ruzfactor]

Is it very hard to build finger print scanner?? Can you give some links on it?? I think pocket door is a gud idea coz it involves mechanical and electronics together.

 

[Danger]

I know nothing from links, but I'll try to find something. Keep in mind that I'm not a 'net guy' other than frequenting PF and occassionally Googling something. A fingerprint scanner works pretty much like a regular computer scanner or photocopier, but it's a lot smaller. The comparison software is the 'operational' part. You simply have a database of pre-sampled prints in memory, against which the software compares the active scan. If a match is made, the computer then determines whether or not the active scan is authorized to open that particular door. There is also usually a thermal sensor to make sure that it's a living finger rather than one chopped off of an authorized user. Mythbusters defeated even that by having Adam put a latex cast of someone's fingerprint over his own finger. It didn't work at first, but after he stuck it in his mouth for a while, the temperature went up enough to open the door.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find more parameters to add in that will make it harder to fake (such as capacitance and/or skin conductivity).
I'll look for some links later. This being Saturday, and Saturday being 'Bring a beer to work' day, I might be at the limit of my functionality now. Nevertheless, I shall continue to monitor and otherwise haunt this thread.

 

[ank_gl]

hehe... mythbusters rocks
they defeated that superlock like it was same as taking candy from a 3 year old.hahahaha

 

[shachindra.k]

I'm in also search for information about kvpy project... please share experience with me.
hows type of project?
Plz suggest me...

 

[shachindra.k]

I am mechanical engineering student 1st year...