Meeting 1:
Date: January 12, 2018
Location/Time: 3:55 PM, Hitchcock Hall Room 224
Members Present: Eric Finger, Mark Ma, Shamik Raje, Tim Recker
Topics Discussed: Research and Design Priorities
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Objective:
Today’s main focus was to generate some ideas regarding our priorities for our AEV prototype. We also received our AEV prototype kit, and we filled out some preliminary paperwork. We also sought to make contact with the other divisions.
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To do/Action Items
- Meeting Minutes #1 – Shamik Raje
- Website Update #1 – All
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Discussion:
We began our discussion brainstorming ideas for what we should prioritize in our AEV design. Tim brought up focusing on cost efficiency, while Eric said we should focus on energy efficiency. Mark stated that if we have less materials in our AEV it will most likely end up being more energy efficient because the motors will not have to propel as much mass. Shamik stated that a large portion of what we will be evaluated on is safety. After deciding on our priorities, we talked to the other divisions to make sure that we will achieve our company deadlines on time.
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Decisions:
We decided that we would prioritize safety over everything else and optimize energy and cost efficiency as much as possible.
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Reflections:
- Contact between the other divisions will be crucial to this project, as collaboration is encouraged.
- We must manage our time effectively due to the amount of work required for this project.
Meeting 2:
Date: January 19, 2018
Location/Time: 3:55 PM, Hitchcock Hall Room 224
Members Present: Eric Finger, Mark Ma, Shamik Raje, Tim Recker
Topics Discussed: Get familiar with AEV motor, controller and reflectance sensors through Lab 1&2. Also get an understanding of Mission Concept Review (MCR).
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Objective:
For today’s meeting, the main objectives were to conduct experiments on AEV motors and controllers with the program developed in the Arduino IDE. Also the team used troubleshooting techniques to solve unexpected problems.
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To do/Action Items
- Meeting Minutes #2 – Mark Ma
- Preliminary R&D Exercise 1 – All
- Preliminary R&D Exercise 2 – All
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Lab activities
We first worked on the Preliminary Exercise 1. Tim and Shamik set up the equipment, which basically connected the propellers with the motors. The standard procedures were strictly followed and nothing went wrong. At the same time, Cory was setting up the Arduino IDE following the instructions. Later on, Cory completed the scenario 1 programming and Mark gave some correction suggestion. Some troubleshooting techniques were used to solve relative problems when the LED on the board didn’t blink as expected. Then all team members wore the safety glasses and run the AEV. We operated strictly following the standard procedure and it had been verified that the performance of the AEV met the expectation.
After completing Exercise 1, we turned to work on Exercise 2. However, there was little time left and we didn’t move on.
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Progress report questions
In the Scenario 1, Line 1, the motor one was supposed to accelerate to 15% power in 2.5 seconds. We could see the performance of the propeller that was connected to motor one and tell if the motor acted as expected. What we saw was that the propeller did not rotate at the start, then it span really slow for half a second, and then it accelerated and span fast stably. When the propeller started rotating slowly, it behaved like there was a resistance in the propeller. The acceleration was hard to distinguish, and we did not know whether the motor accelerated smoothly.
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Result
After meeting #2, all team members got familiar with some AEV components, which included the motor, the propeller, and the automatic control system hardware. Also we set up the Arduino IDE and developed program that could run as expected.
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Reflections:
- We need to manage our lab time efficiently since the Preliminary R&D Exercise 2 was left unfinished.
- We can actively seek help from TAs when some problems occur and the troubleshooting methods we use don’t help. In this way, we can save time as well.
Meeting 3:
Date: January 26th, 2018
Location/Time: 3:55 PM, Hitchcock Hall Room 224
Members Present: Eric Finger, Mark Ma, Shamik Raje, Tim Recker
Topics Discussed: Reflective sensors and preliminary design ideas
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Objectives:
In today’s meeting, we reconstructed the AEV testing setup from last week and tested the reflective sensors to make sure they were working correctly and familiarize ourselves with the programming portion of the Arduino IDE. Additionally, we began to discuss preliminary ideas for the design of our AEV.
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To Do/Action Items:
Meeting Minutes #3: Tim Recker
Website Update #2: All
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Lab Activities
We spent most of our time in this lab working on some troubleshooting in terms of our Arduino IED code and our hardware. We needed to make sure our reflective sensors were working properly before we could continue, which we had an issue with early on. However, after reorganizing our steps, the sensors began working properly and we were able to move forward with our project. Due to time constraints, we were unable to share ideas for the design of our AEV, but we discussed our plans for the next few weeks.
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Results and Reflections:
- The group is now comfortable with the Arduino IED and basic construction skills of the AEV.
- We understand that we are a bit behind schedule due to small software malfunctions and design issues.
- We understand that this project will go a lot easier if we can put in the work as individuals to help the group as a whole.