Projects
Vapor Actuator
Soft actuators have the opportunity to make significant contributions to the field of robotics. Using flexible, squishy sources of motion it is possible to create more life-like actions that mimic biology. This new actuator is a gel comprised of alcohol dispersed in a silicone matrix. When the alcohol is heated and converts to a gas it causes the silicone substrate to expand. More information can be found in patent application WO2017096068A1 or the corresponding article in Nature Communications.
Acoustic Levitation
By creating a standing wave between an ultrasonic transducer and reflector, differences in pressure can suspend small particles or droplets. This is ideal for containerless processing of chemicals, even frozen or molten. My investigations involved levitating a shear-thickening fluid with wave modulation.
Electroactive Polymer
Ocasionally refered to as "artificial muscle", this actuator has carbon electrodes on either side of a flexible dielectric membrane. When a high voltage (2+ kV) is created between the electrodes, the electrodes attract to each other and squeeze the dielectric, releasing tension on the outer frame.This actuator achieves higher displacements than other non-electromechanical methods.
Solar Car Body Design
Using computational fluid dynamics I designed a streamlined car body for solar car competitions. The final shape is the result of optimizing aerodynamics using evolutionary strategy while conforming to race regulations and manufacturing limitations. This car most recently placed 6th in the Abu Dhabi Solar Challenge.
Railgun
For an independent class I constructed a railgun and a power supply. The device was able to fire small projectiles using electromagnetic forces.
Polygonal Vorticies
The south pole of Saturn contains a hexagon shaped vortex. This effect can be similarly recreated in the lab using a bucket with a rotating bottom surface. In this picture, water is dyed blue to highlight the effect.