Kung Fu hand, fighting robots and more featured at expo

There are future applications for many of the projects exhibited Dec. 10 at the Department of Mechanical Engineering's Fall Design Expo. But there also was room for fun and games in the atrium of the Media Union Library.

Students from Professor Sridhar Kota’s Mechanical Engineering 450 class use an apple to demonstrate the effectiveness of their design of a unilateral hand prosthesis—the “Kung Fu Grip Prosthetic Hand”—for patients with forearm amputations or disfigurements. (Photo by Marcia Ledford, U-M Photo Services)

An exhibit created by Mechanical Engineering (ME) 350 students Debby Chen, Emily Cislo, Dan Jorgsenson and Ben Kleyn was modeled after the classic tabletop game, Rock 'Em, Sock 'Em Robots.

The concept of the original game and the group's exhibit: two hand-controlled plastic robots throw punches at each other in a miniature boxing ring. The object is for one robot to knock the other's head off. The names of teaching assistants in the course, Brian Jensen and Matt Parkinson, were painted on the backs of the ME 350 robots.

The exhibit was created on three engineering principles: spring potential energy, rotational motion to translational motion, and function generation. Most of the group had never played the original game but were willing combatants.

"I have been playing this for two-and-a-half hours," Chen said. "And it never gets old."

Elsewhere in the atrium, more than 40 teams of students showed off their projects from ME 250, 350 and 450 classes.

"This interface to the 'real world' provides a constant set of new challenges which feed the open-ended educational experience that prepares our students for careers in mechanical engineering," Dennis Assanis, chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, said in a written welcome to visitors.

Five students from Professor Sridhar Kota's ME 450 course—Doug Douma, Zachary Kreiner, Wenzhe Shan, Jia Tao and Nick West—developed a design of a unilateral hand prosthesis called "The Kung-Fu Grip Prosthetic Hand."

The hand featured an aesthetic appearance, was compatible with either myoelectric (muscle-generated electricity) or body-powered control, and had higher functionality, members of the group said.

"We wanted to make a prosthetic hand that works better and looks better than current models," Kreiner said. "By using four articulated fingers, we provided better functionality and a more fluid motion."

Something was fishy in an exhibit from ME 450. Backed by the theme from "Jaws," team members Konstantinos Boukouris, Brad Lamiman, Karan Mehta, Nick Kuhl and Deanna McGrath showed off their "Robofish."

"Robofish" shared a tank with goldfish to demonstrate its stealthiness underwater. The group set out to produce a self-contained biomimetric robotic vessel that leaves no detectable signature when it travels through water.

"Imagine having a missile or a submarine that would be hard to detect," Mehta said of practical applications for "Robofish."

Other exhibits focused on areas such as medicine (a human simulator that mimics patient responses), health and safety (a safe, portable baby crib) and emergencies (a manually chargeable cellular phone).