A collaboration with Mark Rober produces another cool spinoff project
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BYU engineers had so much fun working with Mark Rober to create the "world's smallest Nerf blaster,” they continued the work to see how big they could make it. The micro ant-blaster has become a mega launcher with the same flexible, single-body design.
The researchers concluded in a recent PLOS One study — coauthored by Mark Rober himself —that compliant mechanisms, such as this polypropylene launcher, are key to scalable engineering design. By achieving motion through flexing rather than through rigid parts, the end product is more predictable, performs better and costs less.
To confirm that compliant mechanisms retain their initial mechanical properties when scaled, the researchers developed an analytical model to describe stress distribution and deformation characteristics. They verified the model by mechanically testing three sizes of three objects (a launcher, a chair and a parallel-guiding mechanism), with the results showing predictable design and performance.
The successful scalability of compliant mechanisms provides evidence for future researchers to test devices on lower-cost prototypes, which could then be efficiently manufactured to final sizes for applications in the space and medical fields.
