Meeting #1
Time and Location:
January 16, 2019
9:30am to 11:00am
Met in Collaboration Room
Members Present:
- Kyle Barta
- Benerji Sai Sreyash Gudavalli
- Zach Laprise
- Chris Lenart
Goal: To get to know each other better and to learn our strengths and weaknesses both individually and as a group while building the AEV and completing the team working agreement. This will allow us to decide the best ways we can effectively work together.
Completed Tasks:
- Everyone worked together on the team working agreement
- Roles were decided for each of the members: Zach is the team leader, Kyle is the design manager, Benerji is the note taker, and Chris is the time manager
- Chris and Kyle mainly built the AEV with some help from Zach and Benerji
Tasks to be Completed:
- The main task that needs to be worked on is the team’s website. It was decided that Chris would make the website and he and Zach would mainly focus on designing it. Also we decided we would split up the contents of the website once we finish the design.
- Everyone will do their own research into the AEV documents to get a better understanding of upcoming due dates and to better understand the overall project.
The next meeting will be held on January 24, 2019, at 9:30 am.
Meeting #2
Time and Location:
January 29, 2019
8:30am to 10:00am
Met in the Engineering Room
Members Present:
- Kyle Barta
- Benerji Sai Sreyash Gudavalli
- Zach Laprise
- Chris Lenart
Goal: Assign different jobs to our group members, choosing a design that our team members fully agree to and finally coding the AEV. This will ensure that our team is organized and efficient especially when entering the next development stage.
Completed Tasks:
- Jobs assigned. Chris is time manager, Zach is software development/quality, Kyle is hardware, and Ben is Notetaker.
- Website is fully functional and designed with the member information and meeting minutes.
- Coding completed by Zach is functional. The code for the motors might still need some work but is soon to be done.
Tasks to be Completed:
- Using the data tool for measuring the AEV. Concept scoring and screening also needs to be completed.
Meeting #3
Time and Location:
February 7, 2019
8:30am to 10:00am
Met in the Engineering room.
Members Present:
- Kyle Barta
- Benerji Sai Sreyash Gudavalli
- Zach Laprise
- Chris Lenart
Goal: Work on the progress report and try to finish as much as possible. Fixing the motors for the coding is also a priority. During the testing of our AEV, our team has realized that the AEV goes forward where the propeller is pointing towards. The AEV’s direction of movement needs to be reversed in the coding.
Completed Tasks:
- Website is fully functional and designed with the member information and meeting minutes.
- Coding completed by Zach is functional. The code for the motors might still need some work but is soon to be done.
Tasks to be Completed:
- Prepare for the grant proposal and come up with ideas
- Work out and plan possibilities for motor configuration to be worked on soon
Meeting #4
Time and Location:
February 14, 2019
8:30am to 9:50am
Met in the Engineering Room
Members Present:
- Kyle Barta
- Benerji Sai Sreyash Gudavalli
- Zach Laprise
- Chris Lenart
Goal: Fix stability and battery placement problems while also modifying the design.
Completed Tasks:
- Added an extra piece at the end of the AEV for better stability. The battery is placed on the extra piece of the AEV to shift the weight accordingly. The battery is held in between 90-degree brackets.
- The wings were made flat in order to shift the weight and make the AEV look appealing.
Tasks to be completed:
- Battery placement is still a challenging problem of the design. A new and proper battery holder might be needed.
- Motor configuration and propeller configuration tests must be completed.
Meeting #5
Time and Location:
February 28, 2019
9:05am to 11:00am
Met in the Engineering Room
Members Present:
- Kyle Barta
- Benerji Sai Sreyash Gudavalli
- Zach Laprise
- Chris Lenart
Goal: Complete motor configuration and work on propeller configuration.
Completed Tasks:
- The final design decision was the Falcon Mach 2. The design was chosen to reflect the variation in motor placement. Motor placements were first tested on the back of the design. The reason for this is because the weight of the design without motors is greater on the back. Therefore, the stability of the design would be improved.
- The code was written to perform motor and propeller configuration tests. The team noticed that the AEV runs the opposite direction when the motors are flipped, so a reverse was added to the code for this orientation.
- Motor configuration tests were completed.
Tasks to be completed:
- Choosing a battery placement. Stability concerns make the battery placement a challenging problem of the design.
- Finish propeller configuration
Meeting #6
Time and Location:
March 1, 2019
12:30pm to 1:30pm
Met in the Engineering Room
Members Present:
- Kyle Barta
- Zach Laprise
- Chris Lenart
Goal: Complete propeller configuration.
Completed Tasks:
- All members present completed the propeller configuration tests. Three propeller configurations were tested, and data was extracted for each.
Tasks to be Completed:
- Work on installing the servo braking system.
- Website Update 3.
- Progress Report 2.
- Oral Presentation.
Meeting #7
Time and Location:
March 7, 2019
8:30am to 9:50am
Met in the Engineering Room
Members Present:
- Kyle Barta
- Benerji Sai Sreyash Gudavalli
- Zach Laprise
- Chris Lenart
Goal: Install the servo braking system to the AEV.
Completed Tasks:
- The servo has been placed properly onto the AEV and an arm was added with an eraser at the end to stop the AEV.
Tasks to be completed:
- Coding of the AEV to stop at the gate.
- Website update 3 which Chris will work on over the break.
- Progress Report 2 will be started over break by all members.
- Oral Presentation.
Meeting #8
Time and Location:
March 25, 2019
8:00-8:50 A.M.
Met in the Engineering Room
Members Present:
- Kyle Barta
- Benerji Sai Sreyash Gudavalli
- Zach Laprise
- Chris Lenart
Performance Test 1: Our team was successful in this Performance Test.
Results: The AEV had no issues stopping before the first sensor. However, we should test the reflective sensors before running any tests. This is because the other teams were having issues with their sensors.
Future Plans: Since the code for stopping before the sensors has been finished, all we need to prepare for is the second sensor and load. The third test consists of pulling the load back to the starting point.
Meeting #9
Time and Location:
March 27, 2019
8:00-8:50 A.M.
Met in the Engineering Room
Members Present:
- Kyle Barta
- Benerji Sai Sreyash Gudavalli
- Zach Laprise
- Chris Lenart
Goals: Recording the distance to stop at the desired location by moving the AEV by hand while the sensor picks up movement. This allowed us to accurately make sure the AEV stops at the right place without much room for error. This new way of changing our code helps with the reliability of the AEV.
What We Learned: We learned many things from the first performance test like checking faulty sensors. Our team changed the code by manually moving the AEV and then tested the AEV many times in order to see what the results were. The AEV had no errors in all our runs but we still need to make sure to check for faulty sensors.
Future Plans: Work on testing the connection for the load. We need to stop the AEV before it reaches the load and then slowly moving it again to attach it.
Meeting #10
Time and Location:
March 28, 2019
8:30-9:50 A.M
Met in the Engineering Room
Members Present:
- Kyle Barta
- Benerji Sai Sreyash Gudavalli
- Zach Laprise
- Chris Lenart
Goals: Finish the coding for the second performance test. Make the AEV connect to the load in a smoother and less impactful way for less recoil.
Accomplished: The changes in our code changing the speed of the AEV helped stop before it gets to the load. The code was created to move the AEV after it stops before the load. Most of the code before was already done because of our successful run of Performance Test 1. We also learned many useful tips in that run like measuring the distance by manually moving the AEV and recording the marks.
Future Plans: Work on performance test 3 and while also improving on the base AEV code. Creating small design changes in our earlier stage helped the stability of our AEV quite a bit. We plan to make small design changes and code improvements for a better success rate of our performance tests.
Meeting #11
Time and Location:
April 11, 2019
8:30-9:50 A.M
Met in the Engineering Room
Members Present:
- Kyle Barta
- Benerji Sai Sreyash Gudavalli
- Zach Laprise
- Chris Lenart
Accomplished: We succeeded in testing the Performance Test giving us major data in terms of reliability and rate of success. Changed how the code was measured from time to distance. This change allowed us to have more reliability with our code. It also provided us with flexibility with our design that was changed to be lighter. The base of the AEV was also changed to make the AEV lighter. This was done when we remade our first design for pictures.
Future Plans: Finish the code for the Performance test.