February | 2017 | engr 1182 sp17 group e

Group Design Decision- Lab 1 Part 2

February 27 2017April 18, 2017

The group design idea was developed in Solid Works to give our group a good idea of what the design would actually look like with all of the parts put together. This also allowed our group to test some design options without having the physical version made.

Isometric View of Group E’s First AEV Design

The views below show close-ups of the defining features of the design.

The close-up below shows a detailed view of the front end of the AEV body. This view shows the attachment of the arm which holds the AEV body, located on the front panel. The Arduino board is also attached to this panel on the inside of the body frame. The frame design includes a small shelf to attach the magnet needed to obtain the R2D2 for mission completion.

Close-up of Front end of AEV Frame and Essential Attachments

The close-up below shows a detailed view of the back end of the AEV body. This view shows the attachment of the motors on the longer back panel. The Arduino board is also attached to this back panel. The bottom of this panel provides an area to which the battery compartment will be attached, shown in next picture.

Close-up of Back end of AEV Frame and Essential Attachments

Left Side View of Group E’s AEV Design

Right Side View of Group E’s AEV Design

Weekly Schedule

Task	Team Member	Date Assigned	Date Due	Time
Independent Brainstorming	All	2/3	2/3	15 min
Online Research	All	2/3	2/3	10 min
Team Brainstorming	All	2/3	2/3	15 min
Collaborating on a design	All	2/3	2/3	15 min
Lab 04 Progress Report	All	1/27	2/02	2 hours
Portfolio Update	Alejandra	1/27	2/02	30 min

Team Meeting Notes

Date: 02/03/17

Time: 12:17 AM (chats)

Members Present: All members

Topics Discussed: Lab 2 Progress Report and website updates for lab 1

Objective:

The goal was to construct a plan for finishing the Lab 2 Progress Report and to update the website portfolio for lab 1.

To Do/Action Items:

Finish Lab 2 Progress Report
Update website portfolio

Reflection:

Group finishes what is left the Progress Report
Alejandra would update website for lab 1

Creative Design Thinking- Lab 1

February 21 2017April 14, 2017

cre·a·tiv·i·ty

ˌkrēāˈtivədē/

noun

1. the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, and relationships to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.

For this lab, our goal was to use techniques for creative design thinking to come up with a few designs for our AEV. We were challenged to surpass obstacles to creativity and find ways to promote new ideas. Each group member came up with an individual design sketch using Star Wars ships as inspiration and presented to the group. As a team, we discussed the pros and cons of each design and eventually came up with a final design as a group. Our final design took into account a variety of aspects for efficiency such as aerodynamics and mass. Below are the sketches of the individual designs and the final group design.

Lauren Sara’s AEV Design Sketch

Lauren’s idea included a cone shaped body that is rounded at the front and pointed at the end to establish aerodynamic principles. The wings have a thin geometric design to be pushed through the air easily with the propellers placed directly to the left and right of the base at the vertex of the parallelogram shaped part of the base. The arm to hold the AEV on the track is placed where the slope of the body begins. The Arduino and battery would be placed underneath the body of the AEV. Although aspects of this design were not used in the final prototype, the design had potential and could be possibly used as a backup plan.

Madeleine Mears’ AEV Design Sketch

Madeleine’s idea centered around a more vertical design. The main body of the AEV extends downward, perpendicular from the arm. The battery is bolted to one side and the Arduino to the other. The front view is T- shaped with the two propellers sitting on either side of the arm. The platform to hold the R2D2 extends parallel and under the arm. The vertical aspect of the design hopefully will prove to be more aerodynamic. This design calls for no additional parts than what has already been provided thereby costing no additional money. The majority of the design will be made out of the plastic provided by the College of Engineering. In order to be efficient, the design will have to weigh the least amount possible to still make it around the track.

Beth Wiberg’s AEV Design Sketch

Beth’s AEV design included a rounded elliptical body of an airplane, that starts out in the front with a wider rounded cone, and ends in the back with a thinner rounded cone. On the side, towards the front, there are two typical airplane wings with the propellers on the ends of the wings. On the opposite end of the body, there are two rounded spikes purely for creative design and does not add any benefit to the vehicle. The design will be made out of the materials provided in the AEV box kit and 3D printing, therefore the cost would be zero.

Alejandra Martinez’s AEV Design Sketch

Alejandra’s AEV body design consists of a stretched hexagonal plane where the Arduino and battery will be attached. The hexagonal shape leads to pointed front and end tips to be more aerodynamic. The arm would be attached right behind the Arduino between the wings. The wings are 4 angled wings, two on each side. The motors would be attached to the top wings in a push configuration.

Group E AEV Design Sketch: Front View

Group E AEV Design Sketch: Top View

Group E AEV Design Sketch: Right View

The group design is a kite shaped frame to maintain an aerodynamic shape while also minimizing mass. The inside is only filled with the Arduino, battery and two small plastic slides provided in the AEV kit, to be able to attach these components. The propellers go on the second plastic slide where it extends past the frame through two slots, in a push configuration. The arm attaches to the opposite plastic slide.

System Analysis 1: Propulsion Efficiency- Lab 5

February 7 2017April 14, 2017

In this lab, the group tested propeller configuration to determine the most energy efficient set up. The goal was to find which set up gave the best propulsion efficiency. During the lab, wind tunnels were used to test the various configurations. Calculations were then done to analyze the data collected. Below are a couple of the tables were our calculations were done.

Table 1: 3030 Puller Calculations

Table 2: 2510 Pusher Propeller Calculations

After completing the calculations we were able to graph the results to be able to clearly see which propeller produced the most efficient results. Below is the graph with the information from all tested configurations.

Figure 1. Thrust vs. Percent Power

According to the graph, the pusher configurations seem to be the most efficient. Team meeting this week will result in the decision of which configuration is preferred for the design of the AEV.

External Sensors & System Analysis 1-Lab 4 & 5

February 3 2017April 18, 2017

During Lab 2, the goal was to test the AEV on the tracks to be able to determine appropriate amounts of power to giving to motors in the Arduino code. Another goal was to familiarize ourself with the sensors and make sure the were properly mounted onto the basic AEV model we had built.

With this lab, we experienced a couple challenges such as weather the sensors were placed in the correct order. After an initial test run we determined that we needed to switch the placement of our sensors. This ensured that when the AEV was going in the positive direction, the Arduino program was receiving the same information.