Rube Goldberg Background

          In my last blog I was talking about building a Rube Goldberg Machine with Penn State's chapter of the Society of Hispanic professional Engineers (SHPE) but while talking to multiple people I realized they did not know what i was talking about. This led me to the conclusion that while mostly everyone has seen a Rube Goldberg Project, only a small percentage of people knew what one actually was. So I decided to post this blog to enlighten people as to what a Rube Goldberg Machine actually is and the background of how they began. I will also periodically post a few links to some videos of Rube Goldberg Machines that I found impressive.            

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvNrvfEQ-uw

   To start at the beginning, Rube Garrett Lucius Goldberg lived from 1883-1970 and throughout his life he was an accomplished cartoonist, engineer, and inventor. Goldberg had a  sense of humor in his cartoons usually consisting of unnecessarily complicated contraptions that were built to perform a simple, everyday task. Goldberg had also received a Pulitzer Prize for his Political cartoons as well as becoming the namesake for the Reuben award, that the National Cartoonists Society presents to the Cartoonist of the Year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkXE8l5KzK4

            

           As previously stated, Rube Goldberg Machines consist of many complicated steps and chain reactions in order to perform very simple tasks that would have been easier to just do normally. There is not really any practical reason to create a Rube Goldberg machine for everyday use on easy tasks.These machines are usually only made for a comical reason or for contests and competitions. They are usually initiated by placing a ball at some point of the machine which can start the chain reaction of events in several different ways. Rube Goldberg Machine Competitions usually focus on the machines having a certain number of steps, how smoothly the steps are carried out, and in some cases if the contestants incorporated a central theme and if they made the apparatus aesthetically pleasing. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vacNFcN0is

Information and pictures from:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RubeGoldbergDevice

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rube_Goldberg

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2009/03/19/comic-book-legends-revealed-199/

The Rube Goldberg Machine

As apart of the Society of Hispanic Engineers (SHPE) here at Penn State, a few guys and I are creating a Rube Goldberg machine for a competition. We currently have five guys, including myself, who plan on working on this project. I will be posting updates of our contraption as we proceed to build it. Our main goal is to have the series of events end by a chalkboard being erased. At the moment I have yet to be informed of the specific size of the chalkboard but I assume that it can not be too large. Guidelines for the competition include; The apparatus needs to have at least 20 steps to it with the steps not consisting of ball to ball contact. As I was told "A step consists of any transfer of energy with the exception of ball-ball energy transfer." I will be posting pictures and explaining our apparatus throughout the process of building it. I will also be posting a background of Rube Goldberg projects later on for those reading this that may not be aware of what they exactly are.

Exploring Thingiverse

             For many people that are interested in 3-D printing, there is a website made to exchange printable ideas along with the details on how to print them. That website is called "Thingiverse.com" and is worth checking out even if you do not have a 3-D printer to actually use to print the ideas. I have recently visited this website and found several items to fill 5 categories I was given.
         

                       Category #1: Something Creative/Beautiful
 Something creative that I found was a Bonzai Tree Planter that was formed as a bonzai tree itself.
thing:430957 






Category #2: Something Useful
Something useful that I found was a holder for my headphones. As simple of a task that it could be to make a headphone holder, this one is a solution to hold your headphones while making it look nicer
thing:291465

Category #3: Something Useless

The useless item that I found is literally called "Useless Machine." It is a box that when you flip a switch that is located on the top, a latch lifts up and a little trigger or hand comes out of the box an switches the switch back

thing:605822

Category #4: Something Weird/Unusual

While searching through Thingiverse, I came across an item that seems to be a printed skull of a Saber-Toothed Tiger. I am not sure what somebody would want this for other than to have a weird sculpture on there desk.

thing:472463

Category #5: Something that I would want

I also found an idea for a mini crossbow that shoots q-tips. I am not sure what I would actually need it for but I still have an un-explainable want for it, whether it is just to play around with it or just say that I have one.

thing:509659

Soft Robots?

            On Thursday night,1/15/2015, I attended a meeting for the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers at Penn State. During a "Tech-Talk" that was given during the meeting, I was introduced to the theory of Soft Robotics. It seems to be a new idea that is still in the process of being improved for a broader use. The fellow student (Name Unknown)that presented this topic to me had recently done research to help improve and create these "Soft Robots." 
                      
              The picture above was used in the presentation that taught me about this idea. These "Robots" are made mainly of silicon. Some designs for them are made to be completely soft while others such as the design shown above, referred to as the gripper,  are made with an unspecified, malleable materials that rests within the silicon to slightly stiffen the robot. If you look closely at the above pictures, you are able to see that it looks like there is little gaps throughout the gripper. These are stated to be "air pockets" which help to give the silicon its robotic characteristics. On the left side of the grippers in the picture there is a small tube attached to it, this is simply an air tube that is used to pump air into the gripper. I was unable to see one used in real life, but as i was told, when air is pumped into the gripper the air pockets contract and expand to change the shape of the gripper resulting in the ability to grab objects. 
         This design of a soft gripper is also very gentle, in the above picture it is actually picking up a fragile egg then proceeds to return it to it's original position (not shown in pictures) without a single crack. Making them out of silicon gives them a very high melting temperature ( about 2577 Degrees Fahrenheit ). A melting point of this caliber can result in grippers, such as this one, serving as a helpful tool for firefighters in the future. 

Melting Point of Silicon found at:
http://www.rsc.org/periodic-table/element/14/silicon

Picture obtained from:
http://gmwgroup.harvard.edu/research/index.php?page=23
             

A Poor Design

             My name is Dylan Combs and I am completely new to Blogger, or blogging in general. Keeping that in mind, my blogging skills won't be the greatest. I am currently a freshman in my second semester at Penn State and I intend on becoming a mechanical engineer. Outside of classes I am a member of the Multi-Cultural Engineering Program as well as the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers.
          So onto the topic, "Name a Time you have encountered a Bad Design". Just to start out, one bad design I have just recently encountered is that this blogging website refuses to let me use the "Tab" button to indent my paragraphs. But while thinking about more general and everyday designs that just weren't thought out too well, one that comes to mind is the seating/chairs in every movie theater that I have ever been to.       
                                                   
         The image above is just an example of what I mean. Looking at the picture, one may not see the big problem. There is a decent amount of people in this movie theater and they fill up most of the seats. Once you have people sitting o both sides of you in these seats you begin to see the problem. For some reason (probably to save space and money) the people who design theater seating almost never chose to make enough armrests. If you are lucky you may get both armrests, but most likely you will only get one or even none depending on your neighbors. 
         This may not be that large of a problem but it seems like it could be easily fixable and would be an appreciated change. But I have recently been to several movie theaters where the seats have candy holders, headrests, and some even recline, but even with the extra accommodations these seats contain they still refrain from upgrading these seats with more armrests.

Seating Picture obtained from :
http://nomediakings.org/vidz/full-house-for-ghosts-london-world-premiere.html