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UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING


EEE3061W
MECHATRONICS DESIGN 1

EXAMINATION 2013
TIME: 1 hours
TOTAL MARKS: 80
MAXIMUM MARK: 70

INSTRUCTIONS
1.

Attempt ALL questions. Questions have different mark allocations.

2.

You may leave out 10 marks worth of questions and still score 100%

3.

Open notes you may bring hardcopy of your personal course notes, projects and
datasheets. No electronic versions of notes and no general references (books, notes
from other courses, etc.) are permitted. If in doubt, check with the invigilator.

INTERNAL EXAMINER: Prof. E. Boje


EXTERNAL EXAMINER: Prof. J. Tapson

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1) You are tasked with building a modular robot that looks like centipede. You decide to
build modules with legs and other modules with sensors that can clip together in arbitrary
configurations. (Illustrated is a robot with image processing and feelers/antennae) and a
power input in a conventional arrangement with a few leg modules!) You decide to apply
the principles of Brookes subsumption architecture.
a) (Read Q1b first.) List 4 possible goals that the robot may
have.
(4)
b) List 4 possible sensors that the robot may have (both in
the leg modules and in more intelligent modules) to
enable it to achieve the above goals. (Feelers, and image
sensors mentioned above are excluded.)
(4)
c) Explain why the robot could be designed to be robust in
the sense of Brookes definition.
(4)
d) Give examples of additivity for the robot.
(4)
e) Discuss the communication between modules to illustrate
the subsumption principle.
(4)

2) An orifice plate is plate with a hole in it that that is placed in a pipe to allow one to
measure mass flow rate of fluid in the pipe by measuring the pressure drop across the
plate. The mass flow rate in [kg/s] is given by

Constant,
, includes the orifice factor and other geometrical quantities (and
is in the appropriate units); is the fluid density [kg/m3]; and P is the pressure drop
across the orifice [Pa].
A measurement has = 1100 kg/m3,
[Pa]2.

[kg/m3]2, P =

Pa and

a) Calculate the expected value of the mass flow rate and its standard deviation.
(8)
b) If you could make one of the measurements (density or pressure) more accurate,
which would it be?
(2)

3) Patents and Intellectual property


a) List the requirements for an invention to be patentable.
b) What are the benefits of obtaining a patent for an invention compared to simply
keeping the know-how secret or registering a design?
c) How are patent claims organised and why is this the case?

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(3)
(4)
(3)

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5) It is desired to operate a conveyor belt to fill a silo (illustrated below) using a PLC.
Generally one would like to run the belt until it is empty before stopping it. Emergency
stop must however be immediate. Design PLC ladder code to implement the following
functionality:
(10)
Operator presses the START button, connected to input I1.0.
Conveyor 1 starts via output MV.1.
Ten seconds later, the Hopper is activated via MV.2
If the operator presses the STOP button, connected to input I1.1 stop the Hopper
and ten seconds later, stop Conveyor 1.
If the operator presses the EMERGENCY STOP, connected to input I1.2, stop
both Conveyor 1 and Hopper immediately.

Hopper
MV.2
Conveyor 1
MV.1

Silo

6) Suppose that you are given a function (calc_ik) to solve the inverse kinematics for the
delta robot and a function (servo) to send out the correct PWM signals to the servos.
typedef float vector[3];
char calc_ik(vector xyz,vector theta);

char servo(vector theta);

// Declare a vector type


// Takes xyz and angle as (pointers to) vectors and
// returns char result, 0 if there is a solution in theta and
// 1 if no solution exists.
// Generate the pwm signals required for angles in theta.
// returns char result, 0 if angles are in -1:1 radians and a
// 1 if angles are out of range.

Using these functions, write a function, int draw_circle(float radius, float x0, float y0)
( ),
to draw a circle using the principle that it can be parameterised as
( ),
).
(10)
You can assume constants z_down and z_up are defined for the z-co-ordinate in the
pen-down and up positions respectively.
You should use 100 points to generate the circle.
The function should return a 0 if it is successful and a 1 (and stop immediately) if
either of the above functions fail. The pen should be returned to the (0,0, z_up)
position at the end of the operation.

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7) In the Delta robot design, the servos had a torque rating of 4.4 kg-cm (g = 9.8 m/s2). In the
simplified diagram below (not to scale), consider a single arm, with rotation in the plane
normal to the axis of that arms servo. Investigate what may happen if the end-effector
hits an obstacle in the workspace and cannot move further. The upper arm is 2 mm thick
Perspex (yield stress 75 MPa), 100 mm long and 5 mm wide. The lower arms are two
parallel wooden dowels (compressive stress limit 30 MPa), each with a diameter of 5 mm,
length 200 mm and spaced 30 mm apart. The servo is located 170 mm above the
workspace and the angle between the servo arm and the horizontal is 20 and the upper
arm is moving downwards. (The second moment of area of a rectangular section
thickness, t, and width, w, about the appropriate axis is
, and stress in
(
)
bending:
.
a) Calculate the bending stress in the upper arm, compare this with the material limit and
draw conclusions.
(5)
b) Calculate the compressive stress in the lower arms, compare this with the material
limit and draw conclusions.
(5)
c) Discuss other failure modes that may be relevant.
(5)
d) In the Delta robot design, you needed to maximise the drawing accuracy. Explain the
steps you took to achieve this objective.
(5)
Upper arm
Servo

q
Horizontal
5
100

Lower arm

Upper arm

Cannot
move

Work surface

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EXAMINATION
EEE3061 Mechatronics Design 2013

Contact for Internal Examiners:


Prof E Boje,
Department of Electrical Engineering,
University of Cape Town,
Private Bag,
Rondebosch,
7701.
Tel: +27(21) 650-5899
Fax: +27(21) 650-3465
email: Edward.Boje@uct.ac.za

External Examiner:
Prof J Tapson,
Electrical Engineering
University of Western Sidney
email: jtapson@gmail.com

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