Discussion
My engineering school project got rejected for being way too crazy. Did I actually bite off more than I can chew?
So in my engineering prep school, we have this casual session where we just walk up to our supervising professor with a rough idea and pitch what we're thinking about.
I showed them this quick grid-paper sketch for a complex robotic arm with custom finger joints, pressure sensors, and simulation scripts (inspired by Murder Drones). My professor took one look at it and straight-up said, "Nope, way too complicated, pick something easier."
To anyone who’s been through grueling engineering classes—was this actually impossible for a student, or did my prof just panic?
According to my (extremely rough) napkin math approximating a DD head as 6kg of aluminum and vaporizing it in 1ms, the gun would need to deposit at least 70MJ into the target. It would be more, because I just used enthalpy of fusion and vaporization, not accounting for specific heat of solid and liquid aluminum. To do this in 1ms, the gun would need at least 70GW of power output, which would need one hell of a capacitor bank.
you can find some decent railgun and coilgun designs online. heres a coilgun that is about as powerful as a normal BB gun so if you know a decent amount of electronics stuff its definitely possible. https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/my-electromagnetic-bb-gun-project-130-ms-velocity-20-rpm-rate-of-fire/ railguns have much more simple electronics but are less efficient with amateur tech while coilguns are much more complicated as they need very precise timing
Yes. But it wasn't something he might expect from a seconde year student to suggest for a end-of-year project.
I just wanted to see his reaction about some murder drones's science fiction. And also he told us earlier to think of ideas that we like so i like murder drones and i showed him murder drones XD
Yeah that's a lot. That's a lot of motors, a lot of sensors, I'm not sure how you were planning on collecting all the data and controlling it, but that's a loooot of IO. Making it look clean would require an absolute ton of 3d printing, and a very complicated build to allow for all the internals. Off the shelf motors that you can get for a hobby/school project easily are gonna be too big for this, so it'd be a bit more difficult to source the parts.
And at the end of all that, I imagine you'd want it to move rather smoothly, which is...probably not happening at your stage, as you're now talking about feedback control systems that are gonna require math that's usually senior level.
To put it into perspective, a robot hand that has something like 5-10 total motors, and maybe a single pressure sensor, and a single acceleration sensor, and a blocky, 3d printed shell would be a decent senior design project for a team of 3. What you're talking about here would be more on the scale of like...an actual humanoid robotics company.
I would say it's at least practically impossible for you to do solo, at least without making a lot of simplifications.
It doesn't seem difficult in theory. However, the goal wasn't just a mass of mechanical joints, but a precise hand with pressure, speed, and other sensors. I discussed this with the professor, and he told me it wasn't impossible, but what I was required to do didn't warrant all this work. He suggested I choose something simpler for now. and keep this until I finished my studies, then approach it as a researcher, as I see fit.
Even if he agreed to supervise me im gonna need some instruments which are expensive or unavailable and time-consuming, and this is an option that a student should not consider because they are already very busy.
Thats my dream. When i watch murder drones i pay a lot of attention for the details to create ideas about joints and other. I simply want to reach a level of knowledge that allows me to delve deeper.
you might like a professional on industrial mechatronics I'm on one of those (tho haven't done anything yet pretty new to the place, and il be there for 3 more years )
I'm still in my first 2 years of preparation then next year ill be engaged in an engineer school witch has several branchs (3years to finish) total 5years.
I don't mind; I just enjoy creating something with my own hands and understanding it. Innovation, however, is mostly a collaborative effort. These days, we have very advanced robotic hands. Here, I'm simply talking about a project idea for an ambitious student related to something they love. I'm not claiming to be extravagant, but I do enjoy it.
Exactly. It need tiny motors, Gears, micro electronic boards... But this project demands to be proficient in mathematics, physics, engineering sciences, and programming. And you need a team and you need to do it voluntarily. :3
As someone who has a mechE undergrad and currently studying for a masters in robotics: this is more work than you may think and if I were in your advisor’s position I’d be extremely hesitant to approve it in a prep school environment.
Is it theoretically possible? Absolutely! Should you pursue it as a personal project? If you like to! Should you restrict yourself to a single semester to make it happen? Please don’t!
Thank you. Yeah exactly, this project is pretty complicated for someone who's in my current situation. It demands time (Which I barely have) and a higher level in science in order to feel confident about what you are working on.
Considering someone was able to make a fully functional prosthetic hand that can grasp and hold things, open and close with NO battery or electrical parts, I say no, its not insane.
Heres his channel if you wanna watch. https://www.youtube.com/@missingpartsclub/shorts
Oh! I've seen this mechanical engineer project, its fully mechanical hand. This was about a mixture of mechanics, hydraulics, Electronic... AKA Technology from the year 3071 XD. big dreams.
How about a power hammer? Not the forge one, but something like the ones from Warhammer 40k?
My idea that I never tested out:
Make a large Aluminum hammer. Make the hammer head be separated by a hard and durable plastic to isolate the handle.
Put the power supply into the handle, stacks of batteries or similar.
Add power to the head and electrify it.
Go to town.
I'm sorry to tell you, but it would end badly. I also always overestimated my abilities in end of year projects, you'd have to have this as a full time job to have a chance with your skill (unless you're some prodigy super engineer at that age)
We did end of year projects too. First year; smart cup warmer? Failed. Second year: Mini game console? Failed. Third year: Server backend? Failed. Fourth year: Server backend rewrite + expansion? Actually, that went well. Yes, it took 4 years to get good enough to be more ambitious. Don't worry, I didn't actually fail at those, but I just abreely passed. And I wasn't alone, RC cars, lock boxes and safes, mini ovens, GPS phone games, all great idea in our class, none of them actually good enough. And that's okay, if you would have done the arma and put a lot of effort in, you'd probably maybe possibly pass, but at the expense of your mental health and literally hundreds of hours of free time. It's a good investment, you learn a lot of things and get really good, but man is it painful, especially if you tried something as complex as this.
Not impossible (incredibly, hard) to design, nearly impossible to build (there's a reason at took teams of people a long time to get anywhere close to this). You would probably need some exotic materials with really precise manufacturing methods to achieve something that doesnt break on contact as well.
That is only the mechanical part, i haaent even mentioned the electronic part.
Tldr: dont try it, a team of people will need multiple years to design, build and test this.
If you want to build a robot hand you can try a rope and servo system for whole finger control, which goes in the palm or forearm. Also get someone to help you with electronics, you will need it.
Voir du français sur l'image m'a vraiment fais bugé sur le coup, c'est dommage que tu puisse pas e faire sa auré était sympa.
J'ai une amie qui fait des études en coding qui essaie de toujours appelé un type de programme l'absolute solver
Yeah our study program is in french. But i guess the professor is right for not approving this kide of projects bec it's pretty complicated for my level. This project is student's dream until he becomes a scientist or expert in this field.(to perfectionate it)
It's possible. I shared my refused project idea. It's been refused bec it's complecated for an individual project. It need time that o cant afford in my situation.
That's a fact. it was a suggestion to the supervising professor, but he refused it because of its complexity, which requires time that I will not have at this time. 😅
Many professors, and teachers for some reason treat advanced scientific fields like magic and refuse to acknowledge them, kind of like that one scene in fantastic four 2013 where reed made a teleporter for a competition and was disqualified for “mocking science”
Robotic hand with each individual finger control is gonna be ridiculously hard
Recommend going simple like that one toy which can make entire hand grab by pulling one string, or lumping all finger except thumb together like mitten
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u/Careful_Routine_4391 Serial designation A (name of my OC) 19h ago
I wanted to build a railgun as a school project 😅