Welcome to the homepage of Group #8 in FAMU/FSU Mechanical Engineering Department's Senior Design Project. Each group of senior engineering students are assigned a design project sponsored by either a private engineering company or a school or public sponsored research project. Our group consists of four senior M.E. students; Ryan Hendrickson, Mei-Ling Liber, Jeremy Riggs, and Shannon Whyms. We are sponsored by Lockheed Martin. Lockheed Martin is an Aerospace Manufacturer with strong ties to the United States Military, but they also supply other militaries around the world

One of Lockheed's military products is their line of Virtual Combat Convey Simulators (VCCT). These similators allow the military to model an extremely detailed map of an entire city, then set-up complex training scenerios. The simulators are made to emulate for a variety of different platforms, including Humvee's, trucks, tanks, amored vehicles, helicopters and many other types of military vehicles. The trainers allow the troops to interact with each other and complete combat missions. The people who write the scenerios design them to prepare the troops for the real-life dangers they might encounter on the battlefield, such as IED's and snipers. This is a crutial training tool because it allows the soldiers the opportunity to make a mistake in a traning environment while reinforcing positive behavior. The techniques they learn in training are directly applicable to real-life scenerios, and are designed to help protect the troops when they encounter the real situation.

Our project is a reconfigurable seat for a Humvee VCCT. In this trainer, the two rear seats of the Humvee change direction and become the front two seats of a truck. This allows the Combat Simulator to double roles as both a Humvee trainer and a truck trainer. We have been asked by Lockheed Martin to address some of the failure areas of their current design, while doing so they expect us to maintain a robust and simple design.