Under Attack!

Sketch Modeling

Concept Refinement by Jessica A. Artiles / See my team's storyboard

Insertion & Ejection Mechanism and Encasing for Small Cylinders into Central Console

I was tasked with designing the mechanism that would reliable acutate and move the cylinder throughout the four distinct moments of game play. Some design paradigms I considered included:


Prototyping Mechanisms

First, I had to prototype a mechanism that could "do" all the four game design positions, all in the same encasing.

I made a quick mock-up of the cylinder to understand how it would move through the different gameplay positions, and realized that a basic mechanical stopper would be best for different levels.

I realized that by fixing the Small Cylinder to a counterweight that would stay on the inside of the console, we could fix a potential cantilever problem, and be able to dig notches into counterweight for the stopping mechanisms to go on behind the scenes. These would not be visible to the user and therefore wouldn't detract from the user experience.

The images below show the 4 different positions the cylinder would have to move through in order to suffice the user's gameplay experience. The aluminum pins represent the positions of the stopper block.











Cadding the Insertion & Ejection Mechanism and the Encasing

After manipulating some geometric properties and doing the multiple calculations of size constraint (informed by the overall dimensions of the Center Console decided by the team's U.I. focus) I CADded for a lower estimate of a 2' Small Cylinder in order to have enough space for the counterweight to fit inside the console.

I decided on a design with a rectangular counterweight containing 2 distinct notches on top for two different stoppers driven by a servo or stepper motor. The counterweight would move on precision rails (similar to fancy drawers railings) and have a spring on the back attaching it to the encasing to further prevent any clashing.

Some key features include:



Above you can scroll through my design process of CADding the Small Cylinder Encasing and Insertion/Ejection Mechanism. For an animation of the last 4 positions, please refer to the video above.