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AME 470: Senior Design Project

This is a senior level requirement for all students in the Mechanical Engineering curriculum. This site contains information on this course offering for the Fall 1999 semeter and links to selected student project sites.

This information was Last updated December 8, 1999.

The course is presented as a team-based, product-focused design-build exercise. The students are organized into small design build teams and each team is responsible for the concept definition, design, documentation, fabrication and testing of a specific mechanical system. Information on the project and progress of the student groups will be provided as the course progresses. Comments regarding this course are encouraged and can be directed via email to the instructors listed below.

The following documents will provide some information on this semester's project.
  • Each design team was responsible for developing a web page to present their efforts. Due to storage limitations, these sites are not available after the end of the semester. The follow photos and "movies" do highlight some of the activities that took place during the semeter.

    • The following are photos of the members of the design groups with their prototypes during the prototype demonstration that took place at the end of the project.

    The Critical Design Review took place on Thursday, November 11, 1999. The industry review panel for the design review was:
    Their important contributions to this program are greatly appreciated.

    The following highlight some of the activities of thia important component of the project.

    Prior to submission of the draft design proposal each team was responsible for delivering a comprehensive bill of materials, description of fabrication and assembly processes and demonstrate prototype electronic and control concepts. The following photos highlight some of those "products".

    Fabrication of the prototype systems began after the CDR and all parts were required to be fabricated by November 23, 1999. Note if you make a mess, you need to clean it up!

    All of the component parts were fabricated prior to system assembly and wer displayed on November 23, 1999.

    Team Mini ME

    Team Airquest

    Team Conquer

    Team Goldern Retriever

    Team Titleist

    Team Voltron

    The prototype air cushion vehicles were completed and the electronic componet installatin tests conducted on December 2, 1999.

    Team Mini ME

    Team Airquest

    Team Conquer

    Team Goldern Retriever

    Team Titleist

    Team Voltron

    The following is a collage of photos taken during the prototype demonstration that took place at the Rolf Recreation Center on December 5, 1999.

    If you can view .mpg movie files, the following illustrate some of the performance of these vehicles.
  • Airquest floating on its air cushion
  • Golden Retriever negotiating the obstacle course
  • Goldern Retriever docking with the M17
  • Titleist 5 negotiating the obstacle course
  • Titleist 5 docking with the M17
  • Voltron negotiating the obstacle course
  • Voltron docking with the M17


    • All the other systems performed various aspects of the required tasks but an inexperienced camera person seems to have "erased" some of his files!