Inchworm car seat drive : designing a linear actuator that mimics inchworm motion
Name
54052394-MIT.pdf
Description
Full printable version
Size
3.92 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
8fcf0694fb5baae97d518c55226b0d70
Author(s)
Zheng, Chun Hua, 1978-
Advisor(s)
Ernesto E. Blanco.
Date Issued
2001
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
A continuing goal in the automobile seat drive industry is to design lighter, smaller, more economical seat drives that offer excellent long-term performance. The way to achieve this goal is to minimize the number of parts and part complexity while meeting all safety and functional requirements. Current seat drives which use motorized lead screws are large and heavy. An alternative solution that the industry is exploring to replace the lead screw seat drive is a simple linear actuator. The goal of this project is to design an inchworm motion linear actuator that may be used as part of the seat drive system to provide fore-aft motion. The resulting final design is a simple system that consists of two modules, an actuation module and a clamping module. The actuation module is a simple motor-wobble plate assembly and the clamping module consists of spring-loaded jamming plates. The final prototype succeeded in inching the shaft forward in one direction, but failed at shifting directions. This failure can be remedied in future work by the introduction of an actuation guide plate as well as the more accurate and detailed machining of components.
Description
Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2001.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 67).
Subjects
Mechanical Engineering.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
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