Project Overview

The freshman design project will use the properties of sound to attempt to levitate small object by capturing them in a standing wave produced by ultrasonic transducers. The object then will be raised and lowered to the beat of music in the robotic symphony. The idea originated after seeing videos of similar research being done in Italy for possible use in the medical field to study the behavior of drugs in a zero gravity environment. Taking on this challenge we expect to have difficulty both building the system and fine tuning it to produce the standing wave to obtain the levitation. We also may run into challenges when programming the arduino that controls the frequency of the wave being produced and dynamically changing the power to raise and lower the object to the music. The major tasks in the project include 3D printing the structure to hold the transducers, making sure the transducers are in phase, and programming the arduino to produce the correct frequency for the transducers. In the end we hope to have produced three ultrasonic  levitators that will be able to work in unison with the music of the symphony.