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Carbon Fiber Monocoque Chassis Layup

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As a chassis engineer for RIT Racing, I built a Carbon Fiber monocoque chassis. This involved manufacturing and sealing the plugs, infusing the CFRP female molds, and laying up the actual chassis.  To make the chassis, we laid up prepreg carbon onto the interior surface of the mold. That means that the first layer we placed down is the exterior, and we worked inward. We laid up an outer skin, cured it, then placed core, and inner skin. The most difficult part of this is the time constraint. Prepreg carbon will start to cure when exposed to room temperature. This means that we had to finish each step within a day or two to mitigate those effects.  After the creases between the molds were sealed with tape, and releasing agent was applied to the surface. This stops the carbon from curing to the mold. After the release agent cured, we started the first layer of carbon. This was the most important, as it is the visible layer. Interior of sealed molds with releasing agent being appl...
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Golf ball launcher analysis

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For a class, I was tasked with analyzing a golf ball launcher. The main objective was to determine the exit velocity as a function of different environmental condition. Below is the final product of my research as well as links to related documentation.  Matlab Link
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Creating Chassis Molds

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To make a Carbon Fiber Chassis, we created a negative model that acts as a female mold to apply the uncured carbon to.  Finished mold Interior The chassis is large enough that we split the plugs and corresponding molds into multiple pieces (Upper front, lower front, upper rear, lower rear). Exterior of finished molds  This allows us to redesign a single part of it without remaking all the molds. To make the molds, we first manufactured plugs. A plug is a model of the final design that we use to produce a mold. First, we laminated multiple pieces of foam together using resin and machine them down to the shape of the car. Then we sealed the foam using spray on sealant. This produces a smooth surface and fills in the gaps in the foam. Upper Rear Sealed Plug.  To make the mold, we first applied mold release to the surface of the plug, this stops the resin from bonding to the surface of the mold during curing. Then, we cut and lay up dry carbon over the surface of the plug. We...
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Lunar Lander

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 As the final exam for a programming class, I had to replicate the lunar lander video game in MATLAB. This included simulating the physics engine, creating a UI, creating usable controls, and calculating the response to the controls.  My program starts by initializing all the required variables, creating and formatting the figure window to the correct size, and setting up the function that is going to read the user inputs. ( KeyDownListener) Figure 1: Initializing code Terrain Generation I then generated the terrain for the lander to land on. I did this by generating a curve, then plotting the curve in the figure. To generate the points of the curve, I used an RNG to generate an initial y value. Then, I used an RNG to generate a slope, then used that to calculate the next 3 points.       The challenge with this is that the lander needs a flat surface to land on, while still having an interesting and challenging terrain. To ensure this, I created bounds for ...
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Maze Robot

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Maze Robot Description Following my freshman year of high school, I attended a robotics seminar at RIT. There, I built and programmed a robot that navigated a maze. The robot utilizes an Arduino UNO with an Arduino motor shield to power 2 servo motors for propulsion. The UNO also controls multiple sensors including an ultrasonic distance sensor, a custom touch sensor, and a color sensor.  Design All the components are mounted on two-tiered acrylic plates. The top tier holds the Arduino and Motor Shield, the breadboard, the distance sensor, and the On/Off switch,  The bottom level holds the color sensor, battery, and has two servo motors attached to it. To detect when the robot approaches walls, I designed a custom touch sensor. This sensor utilizes two pieces of bent aluminum wire and two aluminum hex rods. The rods are attached as the support between the two acrylic plates and have signal wires attached to them. The wires are screwed to the bottom plate with ground wires atta...
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