Ancient Machines: What Engineering Students Can Learn from Them?

Abstract Ancient engineers were envisioning all sorts of machines including mechanically programmed ones and building them. We may never know if some of these really existed, like Talos, a mechanical bronze colossus patrolling the shores of the island of Crete, throwing boulders at invaders, but we are sure of the existence of machines like Antikythera mechanism, an ancient Greek hand-powered orrery predicting astronomical positions of the planets in our solar system and Moon as well as eclipses that are associated with them. This study presents the recent efforts of the author and his fellow faculty in employing ancient machines in the engineering and other curricula. A variety of means were employed including an honors thesis, an extra credit project in an engineering course as well as an internal project that replaced the internship requirement for this undergraduate dominant engineering department: • A double degree mechanical and manufacturing engineering student studied the innerworkings of the Antikythera mechanism to replicate its operation in a powered LEGO system for her honor's thesis while working with a mathematics professor. • A manufacturing engineering student reversed engineered the ancient Greek Ropebot which can be programmed with a rope. The working model of the Ropebot was mimicked in CAD from its existing drawings available, 3D printed, and assembled with addition of some components. This work was treated as an extra credit project in a robotics and automation course. • A mechanical engineering student was supplied with a working model of Leonardo Da Vinci Self-Propelling Cart (a.k.a. Automobile) for analysis. The student was also asked to review the literature in existence for similar mechanisms. This effort was employed for earning credit to satisfy the internship requirement during the Pandemic. The work mentioned in this paper utilized a variety of different approaches simultaneously, including analysis and synthesis, understanding of astrophysics, and mechanical movement via automata, knowledge of and skills in computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided engineering (CAE), 3D scanning and printing areas. The students were already exposed to machine design/mechanisms, or mechanization and fixed (hard) automation concepts prior to being involved in these projects. This paper concludes with the lessons learned from such effort and future work including possible efforts in expanding this into a larger audience, including secondary education beyond Rube Goldberg challenges.