Mechanical Innovation Cell (MIC)

Vision:
The seniors usually have more knowledge by the experience from thier internships/project. If we work together with the juniors then they can learn what we have learnt much before their internship. By learning I mean, learning to make new things, applying theoretical knowledge. This will also help in creating an interest for the subject, into the students.

Projects 2012:
This is the first year of MIC and we are currently working on 2 projects:-

1) Design and Fabrication of a Drum Playing Maching:
This Project is divided into the following parts:-

• Finding the Path: A drumstick is first covered with 2 coloured markers. We will then setup 2 cameras perpendicular to each other and record a video from both the cameras, while a drummer is playing drums. Now using Image Processing we will find the trajectory of the drumstick.
• Mechanism Synthesis: We will synthesize a mechanism using techniques of Time Dependent Path Synthesis.
• Design and Fabrication: Once the mechanism is synthesized we will make a CAD model of the design and then start with the Fabrication. 

2) Design and Fabrication of Automated CNC Machine:
The details of this project will be uploaded soon.

Both these projects will be completed by the end of December 2012.


How it Started:
The main credit of this, goes to Prof. C. Amarnath (Mechanical Dept., IIT Bombay). I did my project on the snake robot as my summer internship under him(under  Umesh Muttal Innovation Cell or UMIC). By the experience of my project I realized that to work things out practically we need an in-depth understanding of theory. Most of the us have the habit of studying just for the exams but we fail to realize that in the bigger picture(5-10 years later) it doesn't matter much whether you get a 9 pointer or a 6 pointer (90% / 60% marks) what really matters to a true engineer is whether he can still apply what he has learnt. Now we don't need to byheart but we need to understand the concepts. We can always refer to books, papers, internet, etc. while solving real life problems. But if our basics our not clear we will never be able to do anything new in life and would just be more of a mechanic than an engineer. You will realize this once you work on making an real life application kind of a project. Thus to understand the importance of theory we need to work on new projects. This will also help us in developing a framework where we can solve practical problems, think practically.