Audi was the first to market with an all LED Headlight system in the A8. When Audi and the Volkswagen of America Electronics Research Laboratory needed help to develop a prototype next generation system using even more ground breaking technology, they turned to Ideal Mechanism for mechanical, thermal, and circuit design. Details are still confidential, but look for this technology in future Audi vehicles.

SWARM is an art project consisting of 6 autonomous spherical robots, which are guided by GPS and inertial sensors to create motion evocative of swarming behavior in nature. SWARM was originated by Ideal Mechanism principal Michael Prados, who did the majority of the mechanical design and control systems design. Along with a collaborative group drawn from some of the bay area’s top minds in robotics, engineering, art, and metal fabrication, SWARM has titillated audiences in California and Nevada, and will be venturing even further afield in 2008.

While developing a new category-defining mobile device for large diversified company, Ecco Design needed to research and prototype new input, feedback, and illumination devices. Ideal Mechanism built a functional prototype using Ecco’s aesthetic models, allowing the client to experience and compare first hand the impact of the latest technologies on the user experience.

Ben Cohen, cofounder of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream, founded True Majority in order to promote making issues like education, the environment, and health care bigger spending priorities for the federal government. In order to draw attention to these causes, True Majority and its companion organization, Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities, have used creative visual metaphors, often in the form of vehicles. The Topsy-Turvy School Bus is two school buses attached together as if they were mirrored around a horizontal plane, which illustrates that our spending priorities for education are topsy-turvy. Ben chose San Francisco based vehicle artist Tom Kennedy to build the vehicle, who in turn brought in Ideal Mechanism to consult on the vehicle dynamics and structural engineering for the bus. Ideal Mechanism compared measures of rollover propensity, predicted the effect of the modifications on the center of gravity height, and finally measured the center of gravity of the finished vehicle by measuring its weight distribution on the ground and with the front end lifted in the air.

The Paxscan 4336 is a portable digital radiography panel being developed by Varian Medical Systems in conjunction with Sparkfactor Design. In order to assure that this valuable device can withstand the rigors of the hospital environment, Ideal Mechanism designed shock absorption to meet challenging packaging requirements and conducted drop tests.

Calling upon years of expertise with advanced touch screen functionality, Ideal Mechanism prepared a technical report on the state-of-the-art in touch screen technology as a guide to future research at the Volkswagen ERL.

In order to improve the functionality of the Volkswagen Electronics Research Laboratories state of the art vehicle simulator cockpit, Ideal Mechanism designed an electronic and mechanical interface to integrate an OEM-style shifter and steering wheel.

LED Wheels is developing a wheel based display to allow drivers to personalize their vehicles with active content and to enable mobile advertising. Ideal Mechanism developed a wheel-based power system for the display which avoids costly modifications to the vehicle electrical system, and designed a persistence-of-vision based display system to provide high resolution while economizing on LED’s.

The model makers at Gemmiti Model Art are experts at their craft, but sometimes scale architectural models require special illumination and electronics. The model of the Northern Terrace housing development for Meritage Homes required 1,000 L.E.D.s, which had to be controlled in different sectors from an attractive and intuitive control panel. Ideal Mechanism designed circuits and power distribution, selected components, and arranged bulk purchases to implement an attractive, reliable, and economic solution.

The Serpent Mother is a large scale kinetic fire sculpture built by the Flaming Lotus Girls, a San Francisco based art group. Ideal Mechanism principal Michael Prados was primarily responsible for the 5 degree of freedom, hydraulically actuated head and neck, and for the geometry of the 160 foot long, complexly curved spine.