Designing a Mechanical Cycler to Test a Wave Energy Generator

The ocean has great potential to provide vast amounts of power. Power can be generated from the kinetic energy carried by ocean waves, tides and currents. Trex Enterprises has already made significant advances in harvesting ocean waves to produce electricity by developing a rotary-drive wave energy generator. They have applied this same concept and design to develop a self powered emergency position indicating radio beacon (SEPIRB) intended for submarines and ships in distress. Our goal is to design a mechanical cycler to test the lifetime, durability, and power generated by the SEPIRB. The mechanical cycler will need to run continuously for 1-2 weeks, be able to change the period and height of the simulated waves and pull with a force of at least 60 lbs which is necessary to generate a target power of 15 W. This will be accomplished with a combination of a ball screw driven translation stage, a cable and a series of pulley’s, and a motor and controller.  We will program the controller to create variations in the ball nut’s speed and distance traveled, to simulate a variety of wave patterns. Due to the efficient design of ball screw driven translation stages, we expect that the cycler will run for at least 2 weeks and easily provide the desired 60 lbs of force with no problems. In the future, this cycler can be modified to fit specific requirements to test other wave energy generators allowing Trex Enterprises continue their research and development in alternative energy resources.