10 Low Cost Mini Projects Ideas for Mechanical Engineering

Summary:

Being a mechanical engineering student, it is essential to build mechanical mini project as part of your curriculum. But building a good quality mechanical mini project has its own restrictions, the major one being the financial constraint.

So, in this blog we are suggesting a few ideas which you can implement to reduce financial burden without compromising on the quality.

Continue reading this blog as I have elaborated on the points mentioned above.

Note:

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1. 3D Printer

2. Automobile Prototyping

3. CNC Machine using Arduino

4. Project Management with Primavera

Here are some more mechanical related mini projects that you can build in a team at low cost:

• Animatronic hand
• Robotic arm
• Biped walking robot
• Hexapod
• Surveillance robot
• Swarm robotics
• Sensor guided robotics
• Mobile robotics
• Gesture based robotics
• Voice controlled robot
• Sixth sense robot
• Wi-Fi controlled robot
• Maze solver robot
• Raspberry Pi robot
• Bluetooth robotics

Low Cost Mini Projects for Mechanical Engineering Students

Being an engineering student, you know the importance of building good mini projects. As the scope of the mini project that you build extends beyond your engineering curriculum and helps greatly in improving your confidence while attending interviews or applying for higher studies admissions.

But the main constrain for most of the engineering students is the cost that they have to incur in doing such innovative mini projects.

Doing good mini project with reduced cost is not easy, as it requires a lot of components and resources to complete it effectively.

So, what you can do to reduce the cost other than compromising the mini project itself?

For this, I am suggesting some tips which will help you reduce the cost of your mini project without compromising the quality of it.

1. Build project as a team: In addition to the conventional benefits that you gain by building your mini project as a team, you will also get the flexibility to share the project cost between all. In this way, everyone will have to spend relatively a lesser cost to build an innovative mini project in comparison with doing them individually.
2. Seek expert guidance: Don’t just rely on your project guide to get all the guidance. You need to seek the guidance of experts who have a good knowledge on your project domain. This will help you avoid unnecessary expenditure on your projects.
3. Utilize the resources at your disposal: Before you begin your project, identify all the resources (materials & facilities) available for you to utilize without any cost at your college and other places. This will help you to make an effective project plan with the least external expenditure.
4. Don’t damage the kits: A number of students who do mechatronics and robotics projects (because mechanical students are not generally very experienced with electronics) end up damaging the circuits which are very costly. So try to work with companies like Skyfi Labs who give you excellent video tutorials and explanation that will help you avoid wrong connections and burning of your circuits. It will be really sad if your project stops working due to a short circuit or burnt IC one day before your presentation as all your effort and cost goes waste. So we strongly suggest to utilize our project based courses to avoid such mishaps!
5. Buy kits with competitive prices: Most of the components that you need to build your mini project will not come with a fixed price tag like smart phones. So be careful who you trust. Look at reviews and ask your friends about the companies before you buy from them.
6. Project without any plan is expensive: Doing mini projects without any plan will just make your project cost to reach new peaks. So before you start with your mini project execution, discuss well with your team members and mentors to draft an efficient project plan. This will help you allocate budgets for specific activities and you will not end up with empty wallet at the mid of project.

Although these suggestions are applicable for all the mini projects, if you are looking to build mechanical engineering mini projects you need to take the above tips more seriously. As doing good mechanical mini projects at low cost is extremely difficult and proper care should be taken during the execution to save money wherever possible.

Some of the mechanical mini projects that you can build at low cost are,

1. Animatronics Hand
2. Robotic Arm
3. Hexapod using Arduino
4. Biped Walking Robot
5. Automobile Prototyping
6. CNC Machine using Arduino
7. Automatic Solar Tracker
8. Gesture Controlled Robot
9. Voice Controlled Robot
10. WiFi Controlled Robot

Here is the brief info about the above mentioned project topics.

1. Animatronic Hand:

Animatronics is the technology through which we can achieve human like motions with the machines. These devices can mimic human like actions and can be used to carry out specific set of industrial actions. Through this mechanical mini project, you will be building an animatronics hand that is controlled with servo motors. The animatronics hand gets input from the microcontroller based on the data collected by the flux sensors attached to the glove of the wearer.

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You can enrol with friends and receive kits at your doorstep.

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2. Robotic Arm:

Robotic arm is being widely implemented in all the industries of today to reduce the human effort and increase the operational efficiency of systems. Robotic arms are an excellent replacement for humans for the works that are dull, dangerous and delicate. Through this mechanical mini project, you will be building a robotic arm with 3 degrees of freedom and can be controlled using an Android App. With the inverse & forward kinematics implemented in building the robotic arm, this mini project will provide you a very good learning experience and serve as a gateway for you to get into industrial robotics.

3. Hexapod using Arduino:

Through this mechanical mini project you will be developing a multi-legged all terrain hexapod robot. The hexapod that you develop as part of this project is capable of walking with 6 legs and it's motion can be controlled using your mobile phone with bluetooth technology. These type of robots find its application across various fields that involve rough and uneven terrains. You will be able to control the hexapod's actuation with the help of a bluetooth controlled Android App.

4. Biped Walking Robot:

Through this mechanical mini project you will be developing a robot that can walk on 2 legs. These type of robots come under the humanoid robotics category and building this project will help you get into the field of industrial robotics. You will build a two legged robot or a biped walking robot which will have six degrees of freedom with a hip, knee & foot and mimic the walking action of humans.

5. Automobile Prototype:

With the self-driving cars ruling the streets, the automobile industry is undergoing a drastic change in the recent past. Doing this mechanical mini project will help you understand more about the automobile mechanisms and assists you greatly in getting into automobile industry. You will build a fully functional automobile prototype that will have the steering & suspension mechanisms and can be controlled with a remote. Also for doing this project you will be learning about the design algorithm of chassis which is very much needed to get into the automobile designing industry.

6. CNC Machine using Arduino:

Machining is needed to manufacture almost everything that we use today. All the components are manufactured by various machines, but CNC machine in particular is the most widely used one among all. Through this mechanical mini project you will build a fully functional 3 axis CNC machine that can perform the actions like drilling, milling, tooling etc. You will be using an Arduino board to control the operations of the machine and carry out specific set of machining actions. Doing this mechanical mini project will help you understand the machining process in depth and develop a better understanding on the entire process.

7. Automatic Solar Tracker:

Through this mechanical mini project you will be developing a solar tracking device that can orient itself towards the direction of high intensity sunlight to effectively harness maximum solar power. This device uses a LDR (light dependant resistor) sensor to sense the sunlight intensity and send the data to the microcontroller. The microcontroller then controls the DC motor to move the solar panel and make it orient towards the direction where there is maximum sunlight. This particular solar tracking device in comparison with a conventional solar panel can produce 40% more energy.

8. Gesture Controlled Robot:

With the number of industries increasing rapidly, there is a great need for advanced mechanisms that can improve the production efficiency greatly. Robots are one such mechanisms that are being researched vigorously and implemented widely in the industries. Through this mechanical mini project you will build a robot that can be controlled by your hand gestures. These type of robots find its application in almost all the industries where minimal human interaction is needed to carry out the actions.

9. Voice Controlled Robot:

Amazed by the way how Apple Siri or Amazon Alexa works? Well now you can learn how they work by building your mechanical mini project on them. Through this voice controlled robot project you will develop a robot that can be controlled using speech recognition technology. The robot performs various set of actions based on the voice input that you give to them and this robotics project finds its application in almost all the industries of today.

10. WiFi Controlled Robot:

Controlling robots from a remote location is only possible through internet. And this remote application is required by most of the industries to carry out specific set of actions. Through this mechanical mini project you will be building a robot that can be controlled through a webpage using WiFi. In addition to helping you learn the robotics concepts, this project will give you a good exposure to the concepts of WiFi communication & integration which is very much needed today.

Hope you got some good suggestions for your simple mechanical mini project that can be done with low cost and serve to be an application of the latest technologies.

If you want more ideas, explore our list of 100+ mechanical engineering project ideas for inspiration!

All the best for your project.

Do let us know, what you think is the best mechanical mini project that can be done with low cost by commenting below.

10 Low Cost Mini Projects Ideas for Mechanical Engineering