Above is a photo of the hydraulic power unit which I designed. It was intended to fit directly within the abdominal cavity of the BEAR, and was designed to produce up to 6kW of hydraulic power when provided with 170VDC power. The aluminum manifold ported all of the fluid paths, but also served as the mechanical structure, and as a heat sink to control fluid temperature. The pump was a variable displacement unit that was electronically servo'd, but utilized a hydraulic power assist to keep the actuating motor a reasonable size. When ports are connected, the entire unit is sealed to IP67.
On this project, I:
» Designed hydraulic circuit, diagrammed, and specified all components
» Designed, built, and qualified the 6kW portable variable displacement hydraulic power supply, complete with servo-controlled swashplate, onboard filtration, two-stage pressure relief, and bootstrap reservoir system
» Iterated FEA analysis for stress and displacement on critically toleranced sealing surfaces to validate weight reduction impacts
What stood out
The primary manifold for this power supply was the most complicated CNC part I've ever drawn. It took 12 full B-size pages to fully describe and tolerance the manifold block.