5/17/17

This will be my last blog post.

We've finished our entire project on time, not including the column stub by Vander-Bend which will hopefully be finished by Maker Faire this weekend. Our presentation is complete, which went well. Now we only have to finish our final report. My sections for the report are Abstract, Acknowledgments, Introduction, Description of Sub-Team and Objectives, and Conclusion and Suggestions for Future Work. We expect to have the report completed by Thursday night. Then we have Maker Faire over the weekend which should go smoothly.

I'm excited to be done with this project. It's sometimes difficult to work in a group due to conflicting opinions and schedules. I felt that our project wasn't exactly within the realm of what I hoped to do with my senior project, but nevertheless we gained valuable experience. I hope some good came out of the project for future years' work, but that'll ultimately be up to the digression of our professors. Ultimately, I'm glad it's over, and I'm looking forward to graduation.

5/10/17

This week, we will conclude the work done on our architectural model. All that's left is attaching the flanges and wooden base to our wooden model as footings.

For our work for this week, we are focusing mainly on the presentation which we deliver on Friday, 5/12. Additionally, I worked on my individual evaluations for my team. There isn't too much left to do before Maker Faire happens.

5/3/17

I wasn't able to get much progress done on the wooden architectural model because it's almost complete. All that's left is to acquire footings and to attach the guideway black braces to the guideway section. Plus, Kevin didn't show up to class, so I wasn't able to communicate anything to him.

Kathlyn took the wooden model with her when she went to a hardware store to look for PVC flanges. An example is shown in the picture below. These are what we're thinking we'll use for the footings: the base of the column will sit in it while it's drilled to a wooden block found in the Superway Shop. However, since she took the column, I wasn't able to attach the guideway braces. I've found screws to use, but I still need a drill with which to drill them in.

4/26/17

The design for the wooden Cat's Eye is almost complete. Following last week, Kevin and I searched the Superway shop to find seven screws and nuts to bolt the clamps onto the structure. Once those were found, I painted the whole thing white to be more visually-appealing. The painting took a while so that the layers could dry properly. We also got a few more pieces 3D printed by Professor Youssefi as well, to simulate the guideway rails. Next class period, we will discuss footings and figure out which screws to use to bolt the guideway to the structure.

4/19/17

This week, Kevin and I have progressed a lot on the wooden Cat's Eye design for the architectural model. On Friday, April 14th, I picked up the 3D-printed clamps from Professor Youssefi. They turned out exactly as intended, though Youssefi did recommend that we create fillets on the edges so that the printer wouldn't make the edges so sharp.

After obtaining the clamps, we realized that our wooden model was a bit too thick and had to be filed down so we could fit the clamps on. On Tuesday, April 18, Kevin went to the ME machine shop to use their files to work on the design. Finally, we attached the clamps as pictured.

Our next steps for this are to finalize the design for Maker Faire. This means we will use class time together to brainstorm ideas for the footings, or some way to make it stand up. We will also discuss what to use as a guideway, since that isn't exactly in our specifications, but it is an important part. If we have extra time, we will see what kind of solar panels could fit on top. After class, I will work on painting the model so it looks more cohesive.

4/12/17

On Friday, April 7, I went with Kevin to the ME computer lab so we could continue our work on the wooden design for the architectural model. In the lab, since he doesn't know how to use SolidWorks, I had him measure out all the dimensions while I input them into SolidWorks to make a rough design of the existing model. Then, we brainstormed ideas for clamp designs to hold the wooden structure section to the interlocking column. As a reminder, due to the properties of the steel within the interlocking column, we are unable to weld or bolt to it. Therefore, we will use clamps, which we can bolt to itself.

This is what our first iteration of the model looks like. The wooden sections already exist, we just need to fabricate the clamps. We plan on having Professor Youssefi 3D print them. I emailed him on Friday, and now that it's the following Wednesday, I've sent him a reminder email. The clamps for the center and top are shown below. The center clamp picture is shown from the outside (visible to public), the top clamp picture is shown from the inside (invisible to public). There will be two of each clamp piece so that two will attach to each other.

4/5/17

Because I went out of town for Spring Break, I didn't accomplish too much in terms of project progress. Before break, I worked on the wooden model with Kevin, then painted the black box section. (this process is more detailed in last week's blog post). We need to make a few modifications to the design including cutting out a slot for the interlocking column to fit through. Claude's father has already fabricated this so Claude will give it to me in a couple days. Then we need to design some kind of clamps to showcase styles of attachment for such a shape as the cat's eye. Because the main part of the design is created without interlocking column, we will be able to weld and bolt to the design as much as we want.

This week, we worked on our Presentation 2 which will be presented on Wednesday, April 5. It will be graded on the following sections:

Project Summary/Context, Current Status of Design, Detailed schedule for the semester, Budget, and Engineering/Professional Improvements. The parts I'm working on are Project Summary/Context and Detailed schedule. For the Summary, it's essentially another recap of Spartan Superway's outline and goals that we reiterate during every presentation, as well as our subteam's importance to its goals. Our schedule will outline everything we need to do in the next two months to finish successfully, well before Maker Faire.

3/21/17

Since most of our project is dependent on Claude's designs and his ability to finalize decisions, we're moving at a slow pace currently. He's still hung up on the original T design and finalizing SolidWorks issues, so Kevin and I decided to get started with the "cat's eye" design. We found a board of wood in the Superway shop and figured it would be easiest to use a tool such as the bandsaw to cut out the intricate beam design of the cat's eye. We couldn't figure out how to work any of the equipment in the Superway shop, so we went to the ME shop on campus on Thursday evening. Their equipment wasn't much better.

This is one of the "cat's eye" versions that we went with in the shop. We figure the guideway method of attaching beams could be used to connect the cat's eye to the guideway. The black blocks are where the guideway would go if this were fully developed, but we have no input on what goes in that area, according to the scope of our subteam, "Supports and Railings." We used a bandsaw and drill press to saw the general shape of the design, then sanded the edges to the best of our ability using the belt sander and hand files. I later painted the black boxes.

We are still waiting on Claude's father to manufacture the interlocking columns for the project. We expect it'll be a quick process, because his father owns equipment that is much better quality than the school's. Claude is still finalizing the dimensions, but once the columns are completed, we will leave room for it to fit where the slit in the wooden design above is.

3/15/17

This week, there wasn't much happening. As I thought before, I figured I would be fabricating the wood beams to create the architectural model. As it turns out, Claude is going to have his dad make them so they're "more precise" using his equipment, which is much better than the ME lab's equipment or the machines in the Spartan Superway shop (which we're not sure if it works or not). Claude is still working on his designs.

To be honest, I feel like my hands are tied. We (the rest of the team) can't progress until we have these designs to fabricate, but Claude insists on making the designs the way he sees fit. So it's been a couple months now that we've been in this designing phase but I don't see anything coming together yet. I need to begin fabrication or we are not going to finish in time. Claude mentioned just making one architectural prototype and laser-cutting the other designs (cat's eye) but I think this would look tacky and simplistic compared to what the other subteams of Spartan Superway are working on.

3/8/2017

We gave our Presentation 1 on 3/1/2017. This is the link to the presentation:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/17jWUimgnZD5Ax67Z1MixaxjqK4BDnnuSh3bH8uC3pDk/edit?usp=sharing

I worked on the section including the Gantt Chart and Bill of Materials. Our schedule depends on our contacts Andries, Vander-Bend, Youssefi, and Claude for finishing the dimensions.

This week I had planned on machining the wooden columns for our architectural model, but Claude wasn't able to finalize the size that he wanted for them. I can't continue until he does so, because he's already planned to design the clamps. He said that if I manufacture them, he may decide that he wanted them to be a different size and I'd have to redo them. Seeing as the wooden prototype I made last semester took 6 hours to get halfway through, I will be waiting until he decides what he wants. Until then, there are wooden beams waiting to be manufactured in my bedroom.

3/1/2017

On February 25, my team (minus Kevin) met with Eric Rosenfeld to gain some insight on his plans for the solar panels. The purpose of this meeting was to further analyze which of our current designs for the guideway support structure would be most feasible and sturdy. The details of this meeting are written in our team blog post, but ultimately, the consensus was that we can choose whatever support structure we want; the solar panel adjustment is a last-minute alteration. With the wide variety of solar panel alignment systems available in the market, we could use any design that we want.

We also worked on our Presentation 1, which will be presented on March 1. The parts of the presentation that I worked on were the "Overall schedule for the semester + updated Gantt Chart" and "Budget (Most up-to-date B.O.M)" sections. I also helped brainstorm the "Identification of dependencies or exposures" section, since our Budget heavily relates to that. Basically, we are a bit behind on actual fabrication, but this is due to our contacts not responding to our repeatedly sent emails.

2/22/17

This week consisted of communication, for me at least. Using the designs that we've already come up with, I contacted Eric Rosenfeld for advice regarding positioning of the solar panels on the top of the guideway. The following is information that I've included in the Full Scale Test Track blog, though since it is my own information, I will include it here as well.

"He says there are four basic design concepts that he's considering: a sloped design, taking the design concept of Ron Swenson's Plantronics solar canopy installation, pitched roofs, flat roof design in which commercial racking system can be used, and ground mounts. He recommends SnapnRack, which attaches via screws but has systems that make it easier to remove and maintain.

After looking over Claude's and Andries' concepts for the column and guideway design, he suggests that it could utilize the sloped design with a central support, though he thinks a four support point design may be more sturdy. He worries that not many roads have islands in the center that we can place these supports into. Hence, he hasn't solidified a solar racking design because we haven't solidified a track design. Whatever orientation we make the top of the track have, the solar panels will have to adapt to.

While developing, we will need to let Eric know the distance between supports so he can develop a better racking system. Dr. Furman says the current design concept uses beams that are 24 meters apart, though we haven't really decided on that exact value yet.

Here are some options he's given us:

• a truss system will allow us to put more of the solar module weight on the track support beams and trusses, and less on the roof of the transit

• a thin-film canopy, which can be printed at any length, but he's unsure of how it will handle San Jose weather conditions

He also answered a previous question of ours. For the weight of the modules, he was previously considering SunEdison-R360EzC-4y module with a nominal power of 360.192W, efficiency 18.42%, approximately 22kg, at approximately 0.63 center per Watt. The modules are 1976mm x 990mm x 50mm. We need approximately 19,600 modules to run 88 pods for an entire year, assuming no alterations made. [https://cngsolarengineering.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/SUNEDISON-%E2%80%93-R335-360.pdf]"

From here, we need to meet with Eric sometime in the next couple weekends to finalize the information we were seeking so that Claude can continue with his designs. Also, we were just given the rubric for Presentation 1, so I'm sure that a lot of our time in the next week will be spent on that.

2/15/17

This week, we were tasked with sketching and contributing to the overall image of our design.

  

My sketches were focused more on dimensioning, so that we had an overall idea of the scale of magnitude we should be looking at. The brace is what we need to focus on next. It will attach on the right and left edges of the column, connecting to the split point of the curved beam on top. Claude has been working on the SolidWorks model, but my computer is having some issues looking at the files so I will have to wait to view them in class on Wednesday.

2/8/16

To begin the semester, our Full Scale Test Track team met with Andries, our South African contact, before regular class met. He was able to explain some parts of the interlocking column design that we were having trouble conceptualizing. He also brought a sample section of constructed column, which was very helpful to view.

During class, we worked mainly on deciding what we would construct for the semester, to have completed by Maker Faire. We will be coming up with rough estimates of the dimensions that our basic structure will have. We'll design on SolidWorks some aesthetically pleasing structure of the Y-shaped section that connects the interlocking column to both sides of the guideway. Once we have a couple of designs, we'll send them to our contact who will have his team sketch up some blueprints using exact measurements. From there we will send that information to Vander-Bend to prototype. I'm assuming that once we get our prototype received, we will fill the column with concrete to perform some tests, if time permits.

I'm not yet sure what our individual roles will be. I will probably be maintaining the team blog still. Claude is beginning a SolidWorks model. We will gain more information during our 2/8 meeting session.

12/7/16

As we near the end of the semester, my team and I have been rushing to make sure we have everything completed in time. We presented our final presentation on Wednesday, 11/30. It seemed to encompass much of the same material that was presented in our second presentation, plus progress we've made this far. However, neither Eric nor Ron had questions for us at the end, so I hope that's a good sign.

My team and I are working on our report draft that's due on Friday, 12/2. My responsibilities for the paper will be writing the abstract, acknowledgments, introduction/project description, and conclusions/next steps. I don't think it'll be too difficult to write the paper, though I do worry that we haven't done enough work throughout the semester to make up for our lack of background as a new team.

Finally, I picked up the materials for our final prototype from Home Depot. I got 16 feet of 4x4 wood and 8 feet of 2x2 wood. We will mill the 4x4 wood to resemble our interlocking column structure, then we will show how the clamp mechanism works in assembling an arch with a mock guideway resembled by the 2x2. I also picked up quikrete instant concrete for the footings, though I'm not yet sure what mold we will be using.

UPDATE:
On Friday, I worked in the ME machine shop to cut the chamfer cuts into the wood slabs to mimic the shape of the interlocking column design. The process was long and arduous since the wood posts were 3 feet long, so we were only able to mill enough to design one arch. In addition, the wood was extremely heavy so we probably wouldn't have been able to carry two anyway.

On Monday, I went back to the shop, and with Roger (the technician) and Kevin's help, we cut out the area where the crossbeam would connect to the support beams.

On Tuesday, with Professor Akthem Al-Manaseer and CE student Rami's help, Kevin and I created the concrete footings. This process took a couple hours but it was a helpful learning experience for next semester, when we will be attempting to fill the steel columns with concrete and make more detailed footings.

11/30/16

On November 18th, we met with Scott Bryant at Vander-Bend to discuss our prototype for next semester. Here is what we learned (which is mentioned in our team blog as well):

• Our model will be laser cut, since we want a thickness of around 3 mm which is about 1/8 inch steel. Their laser cutters can cut up to 3/8 thickness, if thicker, water-cutting is utilized.
• The laser cutters accomodate up to 60x120 inches of material. This is more than the typical standard of 48x120.
• Vander-Bend doesn't handle casting painting, injection molding, etc. -type services.
• They manufacture a lot for the hospital industry, fuel cells, fruit industry, etc.
• We will make a model of what we need constructed on SolidWorks. We will construct the 3D model of it so that they can assemble as portrayed. They will need the step file and drawing.
• Our model will be cold-rolled steel, either 10-10 or 10-08. Bend radius of 1/32 inch.
• Claude will talk with Andres.
• Manufacture time will be at least 3 weeks, so we need to plan around that.

It seems that Claude is handling much of the prototype, as far as CAD modeling goes. I am working more on these blog posts, but we will focus on the Bill of Materials in the next coming days, as well as the rough draft of our Final Report. Our end-of-semester prototype will hopefully be to create a model of how the column connects to the guideway and the footings.

Furthermore, I've been in contact with Professor Al-Manaseer of the CE department to see if we could gain access to the concrete for fabricating our simple footings for now. This would hopefully imitate how the footings would react when placed into the ground for support. We aren't 100% sure yet if our model should utilize one column/footing or two, since there isn't much time left, but we will know in the next few days.

11/23/16

For this week, we finished our second rapid prototype, per Ron and Dr. Furman's request. The model was constructed out of a thicker cardstock material for strength and reinforcement, because the previous paper model was too flimsy to stay together. Regardless of this change, the model was still flimsy, unfortunately. Once we construct a model out of steel, the columns will hopefully behave much better.

This prototype portrayed how a longer column structure would be built. Ideally, the columns would be very long so that the Superway podcars would sit high above the streets and pedestrians below. However, it would be difficult to find a manufacturer who could laser cut and bend strips of steel around 30 feet long. So the purpose of this prototype was to model interlapping pieces to elongate the structure. This is visible in the two following images.

          

The second image shows how the inside of the model appears. Once filled with concrete, it would prove to be extremely solid and integrally strong.

On 11/18, we met with Vander-Bend manufacturing. I will talk about that in the next blog post instead.

11/16/16

This week, I was spearheading communication with Vander-Bend, specifically with Scott Bryant. My team, along with the small-scale track development team, will be meeting with the company to discuss methods of fabricating our interlocking column design, as well as obtaining a cost estimate for the services they are able to provide. We are all new at manufacturing so we hope to glean a lot of information through this.

We also worked on our second rapid prototype, which is the interlocking structure again, but with zippered parts so that we can extend the length of the column. We laser cut the parts today (Tuesday) and will be working on assembly tomorrow.

11/9/16

As stated in our group's blog post, we've just finished our presentation. From here on we will be focusing on constructing our prototype, which will be a small scale of the columns, footings, and guideway, focusing on the methods utilized to connect everything securely.

We also have a writing assignment due. The topic is mobile technology.
More specifically, we had to describe the effect that mobile technology has had on us. I took the stance that mobile technology has widened the divide between people from different cultural, racial, and ethnic groups in the United States.

I believe that mobile technology has created "the digital divide," the economic and social inequality with regard to access to information and communication technologies. Digital communication has been enhanced, sure, but it has aggrandized the cultural, racial, and ethnic divide throughout the world. Our identities are no longer our own. And for proof of this, you can check out the election results.

11/2/16

This week is much slower, since we pretty much have the bulk of our presentation finished, yet we will be presenting November 2nd. We met with Ron, Dr. Furman, and Eric on Monday to get further guidance and help on our calculations.

From the meeting, it was decided that our prototype will basically be a paper model, in which we demonstrate new footings and methods to connect all the pieces together. We will attempt to fabricate a small section of the guideway as well, with columns (about four feet tall) and some sort of clamping mechanism, which hasn't been decided on yet.

Our group presents on Wednesday. I will be presenting the initial scope of our project, as well as our projected schedule and deliverables.