Milestone 2

Project Plan

Our Project Plan is to develop, test, and improve iterations of the Mjolnir platform. Each iteration will feature new advancements built upon the last. In sum, we simply follow the engineering design cycle.

Mjolnir MK 1: Proof of concept and feasibility test. This version of Mjolnir will verify the original design plan and test if the sensors can effectively control a simple elbow joint. This version will use early prototypes of our vector circuit, which is used to control the direction and magnitude of an actuator.

Mjolnir MK 2: This version of Mjolnir will implement new two new powered joints; the shoulder and knee. The frame for the suit will be full body. The goals for this suit are to test the shoulder joint design, and the mechanical structure of a full body suit. This suit will be the basis for further iterations.

Concepts

Concepts are developed through creative designs that start as floating ideas, then become written down, then refined, then fabricated. The concept for Mjolnir MK 1 was mostly created in CAD as it was a simple mechanism, but Mjolnir MK 2 is much more complicated and required a lot of thought. See below for some early concept art.

Helmet and Elbow

Shoulder

Concept Selection

When selecting what concepts to pursue, the team discusses the benefits of each and if a design can be reasonably fabricated. Some of the concept art shown above has already been replaced by newer designs, but this is part of the concept selection process. For example, the shoulder design above was not selected because the rotational motion would not easily be limited by physical means and rotation while elevating and lowering the users arm would be difficult to make a smooth motion.

Analysis and Testing Plan

Our testing plan consists of rapid prototyping where we investigate each test to determine if it was a success, failure, or in need of improvement. The plan is to create each new feature in a version of Mjolnir and test its functionality in a controlled and isolated setting. Once it passes this level of testing, it is then integrated with other working components. The integration phase is very important as itself is a test of all the components working in unison. We believe that this modular approach is key in tackling the larger problems with developing each version of Mjolnir.