Applications Of Servomechanism

Kittanning students' hover boats make a splash

KITTANNING — The hover boats the students built from scratch just needed some adjustment.

Then it was off to the races at a speedy 15 mph clip on Cowanshannock Creek for Josh Miklos' Kittanning Senior High School Advanced Principles of Technology class.

"We had minor difficulties getting them started up," said Luke Mitchell, a junior from North Buffalo and the lead engineer on the project. "The wind blew the wrong way so we had to switch the motor around. When we got them started and put them in the water they took off."

"Everybody liked seeing them go," he said.

The class rebuilt two 2-cycle hobby engines and applied servomechanisms for the throttle and the rudder controls for the boats.

The structure of the two model racing hover boats was built from insulation foam, wood, laminate shrink plastic coating, corrugated plastic and wire strand.

The motorized, remote-controlled boats were equipped with control of up to 100 feet through crystal frequency technology.

The project took 4-5 months to complete.

Miklos said the technology classes that students are taking in the Armstrong School District are important because it gives them skills for multiple career fields and life in general.

"I think this was a great project because the students were very interested in the hands-on work and with the project concept," said Miklos. "They got some valuable physics, math and science application throughout the project. I think it's easier for students to learn these principles because they see it happen and can problem solve."

The students built a red, white and black Kittanning High School boat and a black and gold Pittsburgh Steelers one for racing.

They tested and raced the boats on a local creek fishing hole on Wednesday. The Kittanning boat was victorious.

"The boats handled beautifully," said Miklos. "Overall the students seemed to enjoy themselves and it was rewarding for me and for them."

Mitchell took one of the hover boats home to a pond to show his dad.

"It ran better on the pond because there is no current," said Mitchell who wants to become an aerospace engineer. "My dad's face lit up like a kid at Christmas seeing that. That's where I got all my interest in this stuff."

"I like working with my hands and making things," he added. "Putting this whole boat together and actually seeing it work is the coolest feeling in the world.

Performance of Robotics and Servo Mechanism

This definition implies that a device can only be called a “robot” if it contains a movable mechanism, influenced by sensing, planning, and actuation and control components. It does not imply that a minimum number of these components must be implemented in software, or be changeable by the “consumer” who uses the device; for example, the motion behavior can have been hard-wired into the device by the manufacturer.

So, the presented definition, as well as the rest of the material in this part of the Book, covers not just “pure” robotics or only “intelligent” robots, but rather the somewhat broader domain of robotics and automation. This includes “dumb” robots such as: metal and woodworking machines, “intelligent” washing machines, dish washers and pool cleaning robots, etc. These examples all have sensing, planning and control, but often not in individually separated components. For example, the sensing and planning behavior of the pool cleaning robot have been integrated into the mechanical design of the device, by the intelligence of the human developer.

Robotics is, to a very large extent, all about system integration, achieving a task by an actuated mechanical device, via an “intelligent” integration of components, many of which it shares with other domains, such as systems and control, computer science, character animation, machine design, computer vision, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, biomechanics, etc. In addition, the boundaries of robotics cannot be clearly defined, since also its “core” ideas, concepts and algorithms are being applied in an ever increasing number of “external” applications, and, vice versa, core technology from other domains (vision, biology, cognitive science or biomechanics, for example) are becoming crucial components in more and more modern robotic systems.

This part of the WEBook makes an effort to define what exactly is that above-mentioned core material of the robotics domain, and to describe it in a consistent and motivated structure. Nevertheless, this chosen structure is only one of the many possible “views” that one can want to have on the robotics domain.

Servomechanism practice

Principles of servomechanisms, dynamics and synthesis of closed-loop control systems

Hall generator applications in servomechanism systems

Managerial applications of system dynamics

Principles of radar