Hi,
I'm a 4th year Mechatronics Engineering student at the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Over the past couple years I have become interested in fluid power control systems, and I was fortunate to obtain industry experience in this field while doing a couple internships as a Fluid Power Designer at Husky Injection Molding Systems.

I am doing my senior year design project in the area of hydraulic controls. Sorry for the broad project description, but, at the moment, I would rather not give specific details on the project on a public forum such as this one. Currently, my biggest challenge in this project is the cost of building a prototype.

In the prototype, I will need four actuators which are each controlled independently via their own proportional or servo valve (so I will also need four servo or proportional valves). Needless to say, the cost of this is well beyond my student budget. I was wondering if anyone has any ideas of where to look for external support (either by funding or by providing components). I cannot stress enough how much this would help me, since I am really interested in pursuing this project, but I don't think this project is possible without external support.

I do not mind providing more specific details about the project to someone if they show interest in supporting me – it’s just that I do not want to post the specific details on public forums.

Thanks,

You need to actively petition companies that supply motion control systems (or their local distributors). You will need to show them what they can get in return - free press, etc. The more exposure the better. You could get creative and trade a computer science student some "refreshments" to build a web page extorting XYZ's controllers, YouTube videos, etc.

ISZ