Meeting 6

2/15/19 8:00AM-9:20AM Hitchcock 224

Luke, Louie, Nick, Nathan Present

This consisted of taking a lab practical quiz over the AEV and presenting our individually designed piece. After the quiz each team had 60 to 90 seconds to present their own idea to the class. Our group presented a piece developed in solid-works. Our piece was a prototype of the outer shell of the AEV. This piece was aimed to be at the front of the AEV and the nose may be duplicated to be similar to the back. The shell has an aerodynamic and balanced design to help the efficiency of the AEV. After all the presentations were completed, each team voted on the best designs. The top four teams were granted funding for the piece.

Upcoming: Assign roles and prepare for the committee meeting.

Meeting 5

2/12/19 5:30PM-7:30PM Hitchcock 346

Luke, Louie, Nick, Nathan Present

This meeting was outside of lab during our GTA’s office hours. It was determined that the reflectance sensor test did not work because one of the sensor ports on the arduino board was missing. Therefore the test could not be run properly. We were given a new board that included all of the necessary ports. Then the test was able to run properly. With the sensors working, we were now able to upload the code to the AEV and run it on the track. After the first run, one of our motors failed. So we replaced this motor with a new one. The AEV was then run two different times and the data from each run was uploaded into excel. This data was then used to make graphs in MATLAB.

Upcoming: Prepare for the grant proposal presentations.

Meeting 4

2/8/19   8:00AM-9:20AM Hitchcock 224

Luke, Louie, Nick, Nathan Present

Lab 4 was a continuation of progress on running the reflectance sensor test, running the AEV on the track, and uploading the data onto excel using the data analysis tool. Once again, little progress was made. This was because of faulty arduino boards. This lab, we went through three different arduino boards. The first arduino board was determined to be ‘shot’ or ‘burnt.’ So we received a new arduino board but those wires ended up coming out. Then we received a new board, which we then used for the reflectance sensor test. The test ended up working, however the AEV only went in one direction, even when the wheel was turned in the opposite direction. This was an indication that the sensors were connected incorrectly.

Upcoming: Correct the reflectance sensor test and run the AEV on the track.

Meeting 3

2/1/19   8:00AM-9:20AM Hitchcock 224

Luke, Louie, Nick, Nathan Present

Lab 3 mainly consisted of downloading the data analysis tool from the Carmen website to the computers. This tool would be used on excel to show data from the last AEV run. The data would be uploaded from the arduino board to the computer. However, no data was collected during this lab. We could not get the code to upload to the AEV and then transferred to the data analysis tool correctly. Also, the reflectance sensor test was not be able to run correctly.

Upcoming: First, figure out how to correctly run the reflectance sensor test and the data analysis tool. Next, brainstorm a prototype design of the AEV with ideas from each member’s individual designs.

Meeting 2

1/18/19   8:00AM-9:20AM Hitchcock 224

Luke, Louie, Nick, Nathan Present

This was the second lab day of the semester. The construction of AEV began and each team was given an AEV kit with all of the essential parts. These parts consisted of a base, an arm, wheels, sensors, screws, Arduino board, etc. Luke was in charge of the AEV checklist and the AEV Policy paper. Louie was in charge of writing code for the AEV. A new code was written on Louie’s computer and uploaded to the AEV controller. This time the motors worked when the AEV was turned on. Nick was in charge of building the arm of the AEV. The arm consisted of the two sensors attached on one side and two wheels attached on the other side. Theses sensors would be able to detect how far the wheels or AEV have traveled. Nathan was in charge of building the base of the AEV. This would be where the Arduino board would be placed. After Nick and Nathan connected the arm and the base. Lastly, a code, with the goToAbsolutePosition function, was written to test the sensors. When uploaded to the AEV and started, the motors would run. Then one person would manually turn the wheels to meet the goToAbsolutePosition function. However, the motor kept running, no matter how far we turned the wheels. Therefore the sensors, would need to be fixed.

Upcoming:

Meeting 1

1/11/19   8:00AM-9:20AM Hitchcock 224

Luke, Louie, Nick, Nathan Present

Our group started the AEV project. Each team was given two motors, a battery, and an Arduino Nano micro-controller. Each team member downloaded the AEV sketchbook from Carmen to their computer. This consisted of the coding software that will be used in Arduino. On one computer (Luke’s), two lines of code were entered. One code was said to accelerate the motors, and the other said to brake the motors. This code would be used to see if the AEV worked correctly. The code was then uploaded to the AEV controller. However, the motor failed to start when the AEV was turned on.

Upcoming: Reevaluate our code or controller to determine why the AEV failed to work, set up the reflective sensors in the next lab, and create the initial design of the AEV (All members).