Week 7 - Second Presentations

Our second presentation was due this week. We presented the systems we've decided to use. For our project we will be starting with developing two loops, and then hopefully expanding to four by the end of the year. We would also like to have 10 carts on the track however we may only push for 5 until those a ready to not clutter the track. We also decided to go back to using Xbee communication boards to keep it simple, however we will have someone to research WiFi communications since it will be more expandable later to where the project may want to head one day. We will also be 3D printing the chassis/body of the cabin, much like modern cars so it will be lightweight and aesthetically pleasing. Finally we will reduce the ultrasonic sensor count to one per vehicle, and we will be using two optical encoders for reading bar codes for positioning.

That was our presentation, after the presentation we had some time with the small scale track again and the measurements for the cabin needs to be changed since that was just an estimate. We also started to fix the second vehicle so we have multiple vehicles to work with. Now we just need to build a multi-loop track to explore and troubleshoot possible problems when it comes to locations. We are going to be on a better track now.

Week 6 - Work Time and AnSys Speaker

This we we got time to work on the project and have some time with the small scale model. We took another look at the model and see what we can change. Nasrat and I also talked to Dr. Furman about the route we should take for the communications and locations services for the small scale track. As our discussion holds we decided to go with WiFi modules and drop the local positioning system since it is somewhat out of the scope of the project.

After our time with the scale model we also had a speaker talk to us about AnSys and how it can be applied. I didn't think it was very productive, since I knew its potential, I just didn't know how to actually use it. I guess learning that I can probably get it for free would be good. It may also prove useful for the small scale for the stress analysis of the support beams, other than that there isn't much stress analysis I see that we need to do for the small scale. Maybe something to see how the track will warp.

Week 5 - Presentations and other developments

This week was the second and last week for presentations for the first wave of presentations. This week we went, and though I didn't think I was too bad Deocampo said our presentation was disappointing, and that Dr. Furman was angry with it. I think he might have been talking about the Small Scale Solar team which I was not in charge of. For some reason the solar team disbanded and small scale solar is joining us again. Anyways, not very happy to receive the response we did but I guess it just means we need to improve on a few things.

Anyways since most of the research has been done for the small scale project our goal will be to turn the parts the previous years have created into a working model. After our presentation and Dr. Furman criticizing us for using a new communication component, and saying "what do you mean there's no controls from the Korean team?" made me thing. First of all Nasrat meant location's system, and second so far I have only ever seen the pod run the entire circumference of the track and not use the "shortcut" diagonal track. Which lead me to think perhaps the current systems relies on counting magnet sensors to find its way. The problem with this design now is that though hall sensors are fast they are essentially only transmitting one bit of information, and for the small scale to work the way we want to its going to have to be more sophisticated which means when an interrupt like that happens we need to get more out of it.

From this point forward we will be doing more development work on the cart, Nasrat will be researching his location system, which if he does not do in time, my bar code system will also be in development which can cover for locations. I think a better idea now would be to think of the bar code system as a replacement for the hall sensors. The track team is doing well in their research since Ernest left a lot of information behind for us to work with, and the cart team will be first making the bogey more reliable. Whether or not they decide to change to a swinging arm or simply change the link between the servo and arms. The controls team will also start messing with the sensors that need to see which ones they want to use. I personally purchased a CC3000 wifi shield for the Arduino and I will be figuring out how to program the main controls in Java since that would be the easiest for us to create a GUI with and since it runs on a virtual machine there will not be limitations on what operating system it will be used on.

Another thing that was not mentioned on the presentation was that I wanted to use a WiFi shield because its will be easier for us to work with, since its a more powerful communications protocol. I have nothing against the Xbee but why would we use one of those if there is something more powerful which later developments can be made on. If for any reason a lot more data has to be transferred, or if the model expands beyond 10 carts then they will need to change it again anyways so why not now? It's definitely not a cost issue since both chips cost around the same depending on which one you buy. The one I was proposing also had a breadboard area which we can put our other components on to stream line the design. The way they made it last year or over the summer has three levels of shields, one which is the xbee and the other only has a few components on it. Why not put it all on one board? This point wasn't addressed during the presentation I guess because there was some miscommunication, however I hope people under stand my decision now.

Design Proposal - Stations

After the first wave of presentations I noticed one of the groups had an interesting image of a station. The image I saw was quite similar to the top image in my sketch below. It is definitely not to scale as everything is out of proportions. However this is not a display of my artistic skill rather than a design I stumbled upon in my mind. The image I saw depicted cars lined up in the fashion I have drawn below, and it lead me to think this is the answer. Originally, my thought for the station design would simply be a single track where a pod stopped, left the passenger off, and then pick up a new one. However this leads to problems where passengers might get on the wrong cart, and are then blocked by the empty car ahead of them.

My design here is to have a set of short parallel tracks where the pods can be parked. In my sketch there are only three however this can be expanded indefinitely, perhaps a second floor of them could work too . The idea here is to create a space where each cart can be parked and wait for passengers to get on. There would be a down ramp to arrive at the station, and an up ramp to get back to the track. This would allow dirty or damaged carts to stay at the nearest station to wait for repairs or cleaning. The main point of this design is such that while pods aren't being used they will not block the way of other pods.

Design Proposal - Low Cost Location System

One of the problems we are facing with the small scale project is locations. I have thought of a back up solution in the case where a miniaturized GPS system that our controls team is researching may fail. We would like to have wireless triangulation for the carts to find their position on the track, however if that is not possible we would then need some way to locate the carts to determine the route it will have to travel. This is a design I thought of in the shower, and its pretty basic as the sketch shows the placement of bar codes and the process the system would take for each cart to locate itself on the track.

Starting with the hardware diagram, there will be a laser or a light source that will illuminate the bar code and then have the information read by a sensor. The bar code is designed with a piece of foil to signal the beginning of a bar code read, then the cart would take a measurement every unit of time derived from the length of time it read the high signal from the foil and the carts velocity. This is then interpreted as a binary number, converted to an integer and then that information is relayed back to the command center as a track piece location on the grid. The central computer would then calculate its fastest route and give information to the cart as it moves along the track.

Week 4 - Presentations Wave 1

This week we are presenting the progress we have made thus far in our respective subgroups. There are two weeks of presentations and the Small Scale Track team will be presenting our findings next week. I also have two design ideas that I have sketched up coming up soon.

Week 3 - Group Time

Today we did not do much. First we listened to a "lecture" about a report we will need to do soon and examples about how it should or could be done with given examples. I can't remember much of it however after that ME195 meeting we met up at the SSDC, or also known as the Spartan Superway Development Center, I think. At the SSDC Ron gave us a talk on why the presentation that Okamoto gave would have been given an F grade in the Superway project, he talked about how there was too much text and that is a distraction from what the speaker is saying. Anyways, after all that we met up with our respective teams in the project, I met up with the Project Management team and talked about what we need to do and what needs to be done. I talked to David about how the team is going and how half the people from the original team left to join Wayside power. I don't get people half the team left to do wayside power, if anything that is the easiest think to do for this project especially since one its mainly adding a rail to the track, and two its for the small scale project. So that happened, last week. Now I have a group of 8, 9 including myself, that has to get the track design done and then produced next semester, the controls and safety system developed, buy a team of three mainly, and build more carts.

So I did my best to direct a sinking ship. First I talked to each of my team leads and now I decided that we need to first decided on a final track design that we will use for the rest of the semester. Second we need to build the cart's bogey system, and the way side rail system based on that track. We still haven't decided on whether it will be the current design, or a new design where the rails are stacked on top of each other like the intermediate scale. Oh that's another think, theres three scale, small, intermediate, full; honestly I though it was just small and full, but we don't even have a full scale project. We decided for a two week time span to decided on the final track design and we will come back to it on the 30th. By then we should have a design that we can work on for the bogey, control system, and wayside rail. Other stuff will come along as we go, but I have given from the time were done witht he decision to the end of the semester to design everything around the track so it works efficiently.

After all that I also introduced my design for a location system tot he controls lead, but he said he had something else in mind so lets hope that works, If not then we'll use my design because its simple and it will work, hopefully. After the short time we had with our teams it was time for me to head over to ME147 to take vibrations.

I will have a post with my location system design up soon.