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Final Mangonel Group Project

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100% found this document useful (2 votes)

2K views7 pages

Final Mangonel Group Project

Uploaded by

Aarohan Verma

We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.

Available Formats

Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

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Mangonel

Group Project
&

Poster presentation

Precision Mangonel

UTA013 Engineering Design Project-I

© A S Jawanda, Gautam Setia and Poonam Verma Page 1 of 7

Mangonel

Aim: The objective of this course in this project is to bring together the
various components of this course with a view to help you learn the
engineering design process shown above to design, simulate and fabricate
any engineered product. The design of a Precision Mangonel is used as an
example to illustrate the steps involved and the implementation by a team of
engineers. A ‘Precision Mangonel’ is designed and instrumented with the aim
of firing a missile (ball) at a target which is detected by an electronic
measuring circuit. The angle of launch of the missile is changed using a
calibrated electro-mechanical targeting system. The velocity of launch of the
missile is calibrated in the launching electro-mechanical system.

Theory: Related to the design of a Precision Mangonel, in the Electronics

Laboratories you have successfully implemented, simulated and operated a
micro-electronic system to allow you to measure as well as display the
angular velocity of the arm. In the Mechanical Laboratories you have
developed a discretized analytical model of trajectory dynamics and used this
to generate a simulation tool to allow you study the influence of launch
velocity, launch angle and drag on the flight path of the missile. In the
Dynamics Laboratories, you have developed analytical skills in order to
calculate the static and dynamic stresses in the Mangonel material so that the
design remains safe when operated repeatedly. In addition, you have seen the
assembly of a full Mangonel and videos of it from the point of view of
performance.

© A S Jawanda, Gautam Setia and Poonam Verma Page 2 of 7

Mangonel

The engineering challenge is to design electro-mechanical systems which will

convert the existing structure of the Mangonel under constraints of not
changing the design of the basic structure or its materials (to preserve the
design connect to history) to make it perform as a Precision Mangonel.
Specifically, you are also required to custom design the throwing arm and
missile (ball) holder’s shape and material so that the range at which a target
can be hit is maximised. The torque provided by the skein can be maximised
by modifying the number of loops, and without changing it’s material. In
conjunction with the accompanying lecture series, you should be in a position
to instrument and calibrate the Mangonel with a view to make it into a
Precision Mangonel.

UTA013: Final Group Project

In the condition of the ongoing pandemic while from home the physical Model
of the Mangonel at the campus is not accessible to you. Yet, understanding the
structure of the Mangonel and its working from the videos shared with you during
the course it is required that we should be able to demonstrate our understanding
using physical mock-ups and simulations.
For this particular activity students in each subsection are required to form groups
of 3 students.

Marking Scheme: Final Group Project (20 Marks) = 20% of course.

There are two parts of the Project:

A. Designing precision engineered physical product (Mangonel).

Note: This will be evaluated for 10 marks (5 marks each for the
Mechanical and Electronics components).

Mechanical Component: This will be evaluated for 5 marks.

Your design team is required to demonstrate using any materials available to

you easily available from nearby market or at home, for the fabrication of a
‘Mangonel arm’ which meets the requirements as follows. As our Mangonel
is a scaled down model of a weapon (20 times smaller than the original

© A S Jawanda, Gautam Setia and Poonam Verma Page 3 of 7

Mangonel
weapon used by the romans), SAFETY is an important criterion which must
be demonstrated for every step in real life described below.
1. Make/take an arm of any appropriate material and dimension with a
receptor at one end to hold a ball (any soft material) steady before
launch and launch it at an angle which is predictable for every launch.
The design of the ball holder is also unrestricted but it must operate and
connect securely with the arm.
2. Demonstrate the working of a torsion spring, like a skein is used on the
actual Mangonel to store energy when in loaded position for launching
the ball from the arm taken in the first step. Specifically, arm must
receive its power from the Skein and be triggered.
3. Make a video to demonstrate the launch of the ball to hit a target
repeatedly with precision which is engineered by controlling the
velocity and angle of launch of the ball through the calibration of the
tightening of the skein and the design of the ball launching at a desired
angle.
4. Show how your team tried different ideas for the above measurement
and prediction of velocity and angle of launch. Show how the failures
help in learning from the iterations to make the design better.
5. Your project team has to calculate physically the FOS (Factor of
Safety) of the throwing arm materal you have used. Show an
experimental determination of the strength of the material of the arm.

Electronic component: This will be evaluated for 5 marks.

Design and simulate a micro-electronic project for Precision Mangonel using

Tinkercad, capable of

1. Evaluating angle of launch of ball by the Mangonel.

2. Initial Velocity of Launch of the ball, Calibration of the circuit
already done in labs to measure the angular velocity of the throwing
arm with the actual velocity of launch of the ball is expected now.
Use the Mechanical rig made by your group above,
3. Measure the distance of the target to be hit by the ball (missile).
4. The distance from step 3 can be used to drive a motor which will
position the Mangonel structure (given in PDF files) at an inclination
to repeatedly launch the ball at the target at the angle evaluated in

Mangonel
step 1. Think how to use the weight and location of CG of the
Mangonel in triggered position given at the end of this document.

B. Poster Demonstration:

Note: Poster will be evaluated for 10 marks along with it’s presentation
and viva-voce.
a. 5 marks will be for the mechanical design demonstration (MED
component) and
b. 5 marks will be evaluated for precision-based data acquisition and
automation (ECED component).

All the groups are required to make a A3 size poster, for demonstrating the
use of the engineering design process for the mechanical design steps and
the implementation of precision-based data acquisition and automation
of the desired design of the Precision-Mangonel.

The following specific design aspects should be explored and demonstrated

in the poster:

The processes of design, alternative selection, analytical and experimental

testing is to be presented using text, pictures, graphs, diagrams etc. as you
like. For example, in case of design the Mangonel throwing arm, the arm
cannot self-destruct and therefore you should carry out some structural
analysis on the arm to ensure that it and the rest of the Mangonel is strong
enough. Also, while simulating the precision Mangonel using TinkerCAD,
taking screenshots of the working sketch of the micro-electronic project as
well as of the coding section is required (screenshot comprising of one of
the team member name and timestamp is mandatory).

Your team should explore and be able to answer the following for the final
design and viva-voce.

i. On what factors will the maximum range of the launched missile

(ball) depend upon?
ii. What kind of ball holding methods /design concepts can be attached
to the throwing arm and what difference do these design make?

Mangonel
iii. What factors will affect the precision of the Mangonel and how can
you attain a greater precision?
iv. Methods to obtain max. precision for given distance of throwing the
ball (i.e., selection of suitable electronic components to design a
Precision Mangonel)
v. We have learnt that the velocity and launch angle are critical for
precision in hitting a target. Hence, your redesign of the Mangonel as
well as the design of micro-electronic project should seek to optimize
these for precision. Accordingly, consideration should be given to
methods to vary these parameters.
vi. The missile holder design and the material properties and geometric
dimensions of the throwing arm should be given some consideration
as well.
vii. How can we calibrate the throwing distance requirement for a
Precision Mangonel with tightening of the skein?
viii. Refer to the design given below. The detailed drawings of the parts
are given in the file ‘TheMightyRomanMangonel.pdf’ the 3D PDF
of the assembly is given in the file ‘Mangonel_3D_Creo.pdf’.
a. If you need to automate the working of this Mangonel (automatic
operation with control over the launch angle and velocity as per the
requirement). Please suggest how you can do that. The electronics
required may be demonstrated in simulation using TinkerCAD.
b. What kind of motors are you going to use and where you are
going to place the same?

Mangonel