Design and Fabrication of a Ball Track System

The objective of the project is to design, analyze, simulate, fabricate and test a dynamic system. The mechanical system that we will be analyzing necessitates the application of higher level kinematics and dynamics. To create a challenging system for analysis it is required to have a minimum of a spring, a rotating component, an impact, and direction changes in both the vertical and horizontal. The effect of the components of the system are then simulated in MATLAB, to study their influence on the position of the ball as it travels through the system. These calculations are then compared to the real world results of the system.

The dynamic system is composed of stages that satisfy the criteria for multiple and varied kinematic and dynamic influences on the ball. Concerning the construction and operation of the physical model, more criteria must be taken into account. It is imperative that the designed system is possible to construct under material constraints in addition to lacking access to sophisticated tools. Furthermore, running the system must produce successful results repeatedly. For our design to stand out, we opted to incorporate some original and unique components. These components are not necessarily unique in that they are uncommon, more owing to the fact that they are hard to construct and incorporate into the system with the required degree of accuracy.

To decrease the environmental impact of the constructed machine, as much of the system as possible will be constructed from recycled material. In a society of excess, engineers are bound by a code of ethics where “the protection of the environment” is held as an integral principle to the profession [2].