No lab was conducted this week, but in replacement the group presented their preliminary design report. The purpose of this presentation was to provide our classmates and instructors updates on the status of our design and the steps taken to reach its current state. The presentation was divided up into five sections which covered a brief overview of the project, key discoveries, the design process, developments, and future goals the group wishes to pursue. The presentation lasted around eight minutes and was split up evenly between all four group members. Afterwards, a short Q&A was held for any questions members of the audience had.
As stated before, the presentation was divided into five sections. The first part of the presentation was the brief overview. This part of the presentation covered the general goal of the project which was to get the AEV to go pick up the cargo and report back to the starting point. In order for the AEV to do this, an effective design and proper coding had to be met. In the second section, the key discoveries through labs 00-06 were discussed. Some of the major discoveries were how to use system analysis to collect data and use it to tweak aspects of design and code, using 3-D visualization to help draw designs of AEV and lastly using concept screening/scoring along with 3-D visualization skills to help the brainstorming process. In the third section, the design process was talked about. At first, we started with a plain stock AEV design and each teammate was tasked with drawing their own AEV prototype. Then, using concept scoring the best design was chosen was on the three categories we thought to be most effective which were good balance, lightweight, and minimal blockage. The fourth section of the presentation covered developments made after the concept scoring. Observations of the design were that too much power was being used, it wasnt stable turning the corners, and it wasn’t slowing down fast enough. In order to fix this, the AEV’s body was slimmed down and the wings were moved towards the center. The effect of the slimmed down body was less power usage and it allowed the AEV to slow down better. The effect of moving the wings towards the center resulted in the AEV having a better center of gravity and being more stable traveling around the corners. The fifth section the presentation covered was our future goals and what we were going to do next. Our future goals were to have better project management and have more consistent results. In order to achieve these goals, we planned to continue to improve upon our design and to continue working on the code so that the AEV could pick up the cargo and make the return.