A "drop tower" is being used to study the distortion of raindrops as they free fall through air. A camera is to track each raindrop beginning at 9' from the drop point through one foot of its free fall. The camera will be mounted in one coupler (3) of a double parallelogram (pantograph) linkage, as shown in the figure. The other end of the pantograph is converted via link 6 to a translating follower (7) driven by cam (8). Your task is to design the cam and choose the pantograph ratio a/b for the linkage.

    The rain drops are let go at exactly one second intervals. A timing signal is available to synchronize and phase your cam rotation with the release of the drops. It is important that the movie camera's motion be smooth while filming.

    Choose appropriate functions for SVAJ, and size the cam for appropriate pressure angles and radii of curvature. Your project report may omit the background research portion for this more structured problem. Start with a goal statement and a set of task specifications. Then go directly to the Design iteration phase using the Dynacam program to investigate various possible designs. Choose the best one and write it up in the report. You should present and discuss rejected designs also. The final design should be documented in the report with, as a minimum, the following figures, all taken from DYNACAM.

- SVAJ diagrams in one plot - Separate S, V, A, J plots (total 4) - pressure angle plot - radius of curvature plot - the (3) Boundary Condition tables for each segment.

- a cam profile - any other data you think necessary

No model is required.