CONTENTS
Research Areas
Graph Grammars
Automated Design
Achievements
Publications - 2 (UR)
Conferences - 1
Master's Research
People
ABOUT
Whether it's a car, a clock, or an industrial machine, gearboxes form the core of many mechanical systems. Designing and manufacturing a gearbox is a complicated process. In an engineering company, many employees could come together to make only a few designs, analyze them, and then choose the best option on the table. This is not to mention the added complexities in material and equipment selection, part orientations and placements, manufacturing, and assembling. In a nutshell, the financial costs and the time taken to undertake such a pursuit can be immense. But what if you could ask a computer to design a gearbox for you in a matter of minutes and at a fraction of the cost instead? Maybe even ask it to change its design based on conditions of your choice. "I want my gearbox to have an output speed of at least 'x' kms/hr and be able to have a minimum torque of 'y' Nm/s". Firms are increasingly looking towards automated design and manufacturing tools to solve this issue. Computational tools like these not only reduce costs and time but also improve design and efficiency.
If this field sparks your interest, I highly recommend exploring 'Generative Design' by Autodesk, and 'Artificial Intelligence: Foundations of Computational Agents' by David Poole & Alan Mackworth. For an engaging visual insight into the topic, Maurice Conti's Ted Talk, 'The incredible inventions of Intuitive AI', is a must-watch.
The goal, of this research specifically, was to automatically synthesize gear-trains for various applications using a rule-based approach alongside optimization algorithms. In the process, a software tool was being developed that will allow users to design and analyze gears, shafts along with other components and also automatically generate collision-free CAD models of the generated designs. Key enhancements such as collision detection, kinetic/kinematic analysis, and 3D gear visualization/profiles were integrated, while the introduction of the AI-assistive user experience tool, ChatOutside, elevated user interaction. This tool not only significantly improved the design process but also provided valuable educational benefits. The addition of these to the existing software environment can help the tool perform efficiently in engineering classes at WPI where students construct ropeless concept elevators for Otis Elevator Company (ME 4320); design, engineer, and build self-driving RC cars that will participate in races (ME 2300); etc. As the development of the tool progresses, the focus will be on refining its functionality and usability, integrating back-end with front-end, cleaning up code, and including more relevant updates. By continuing to build on the foundations established in this project, the GearUI tool can become an indispensable resource for students and professionals alike, simplifying and enhancing the gear train design process for users of all levels.
Approach Proposed
The figure illustrates the proposed flow required of the automated GearUI tool.
Gallery
A look into what the software tool looks like. A student can use it to create gears of various types, enter his/her parameters and add gear-sets.
Once completed, the auto-mesh and collision detection checks will make sure the gears, shafts, bearings are in the right locations and the STL file can be generated.
Research Output
Paper: Design and Analyze Gearboxes with GearUI (In Progress)
Gear trains are used in many applications including machine tools, industrial equipment, power transmission systems in automotive vehicles, and even regular consumer products like clocks and bicycles. Designing a gear train for an application, however, is a much more challenging activity. A typical gear train is designed to meet speed and torque requirements set by the user while the entire system needs to be housed in what is called a gearbox. Furthermore, various levels of benchmarking, configuration analysis, kinematic and kinetic analysis, prototyping, testing, and optimization needs to be considered before the gearbox can be designed and assembled. All this emphasizes the need for a software tool to help users design, analyze and compare prototypes with a certain level of ease and speed. There exists a number of CAD modeling tools, such as SolidWorks and Autodesk Inventor, that can accomplish this, but none of them are effective in generating conceptual designs. Such tools expect the user to be familiar with the software and the design process. A particularly useful tool is KissSoft’s KISSsys gearbox variant generator that provides most of the functionalities described above, however, it is not a free software and requires training in order to be effectively used. It can take even a skilled professional time to generate and analyze various gearboxes. To elevate the cost incurred by these issues, we developed the GearUI to assist users of all levels in designing and building gearboxes.