Biology in Action – Escape the Matrix

Overview

The Penn State Behrend Biology Department hosts various outreach programs on campus. These outreach programs consist of educational activities to teach participants specific biological aspects. A new activity is desired to educate participants on agarose and polyacrylamide gels. The design and construction of a rope obstacle course would be used to display this concept through the ropes forming a matrix like those found in the gels.

Objectives

The objective of this project was to design and construct a rope obstacle course to educate and entertain participants. Our group designed a six-frame rope obstacle course made of structural steel. Our design was then fully constructed for use.

Approach

• Met with sponsor to gain understanding and gather information regarding the sponsor’s needs for the obstacle course.
• Autodesk Inventor was used to design concepts for the framework and rope connections.
• Concept selection for the framework and rope connections was completed using weighted decision matrices.
• Modelled the final design in Autodesk Inventor to be used for construction.
• Used CES to select a material to meet the specifications.
• Ordered all materials needed to construct the rope obstacle course.
• Utilized ANSYS to locate the maximum stresses on each frame and rope connection.
• Performed multiple experimental tests to determine rope orientation, gap spacing, and rope tension.
• Constructed final structure.

Outcomes

The final structure was constructed to have six frames. Each frame consisted of nine ropes at a randomized orientation to simulate a gel matrix. The frames can each be removed from the total structure. The total cost of the design was $1,126.70, which is under the sponsor budget.