Week 4

During this week, the design and calculation process has continue as we enter the first presentation of the week. The presentation is of upmost importance as it will communicate and give important info to the rest of the sub-teams and will enable us to continue working and communicating in such a way which will enable good team work. My role this week was to finalize the kinematic calculations  for the steering. Once the calculations were done, I began to implement all formulas obtained into an excel sheet which will iterate all calculations in a simple manner. This will save time which can be used for testing or the designing of other components. The excel sheet is ready to used and it relies a great amount of freedom to the position of the motors used. Also, ideas for the failsafe system were discussed, but we will implemented as soon as the rest of our design is finalized. Such thing is necessary as the fail safe system is more lenient in comparison to other components thus the shape and its placement can be determined once most of the components are finalized. Finally, during this week I attended the Paseo Public Prototyping Challenged located at the Hammer Theatre on Wednesday September 21. The event was conducted by various professors and professionals which encouraged students at SJSU to make a difference and enter the challenge to better our city. Inventions and ideas can be entered in the contest and will get funding to make them a realization. The topics are based in problems experienced in san jose, thus solutions to those problems are necessary. Below, a picture is illustrated of myself in attendance to the event.

Week 3

During week three we begin by communicating with the sub-teams conforming the half scale design. This was of importance this week as we begin to really plan our future deadlines and it what manner we want to achieve the best results. When communicated with the rest of our peers, the ideas of each one come into light. By knowing the ideas and different prospective design ideas of each member, we can design the parts accordingly thus avoiding future parts which may not fit the final design. After, the planification and scheduling of what task will be taking place was determined. From, designing to testing was planed in order to obtain the best scope and also to have deadlines that will help us plan better our tasks. Once those details were finalized, we began working a little more in depth in the project. In my specific sub-team, bogie and steering, we began analyzing our ideas and computing some numbers to see which feature will be more reliable and the best to implement in the design. Personally, I started working in the steering motion and the linkage that we would like to use. I noticed that a four bar linkage can be implemented in order to move the steering accordingly. As such, the derivation for the linkage was done with variables involved. An excel sheet was crated to plug in values which will describe the behavior of mechanism which will lead to the best design for steering as well as the location of such mechanism. This week became of high productivity and as such, the communication and designing of the project will continue.

Week 2

In this week, we bonded as a group and begin research for our respective team objective. For instance I obtained all the information regarding each team member in the half scale bogie team. The communication will be of great importance thus I will be sharing all the design choices and progress with each member in a google doc created. All information I may provide in this folder will help the other teams to design their parts accordingly. Concerning our sub-team, we began preparations and brainstorming to fully grasp the problems and possible solutions which may be implemented in the redesign of the bogie. Also, I began to sketch some ideas that we may implement to the design. The purpose is to brainstorm our own individual ideas of concerning solutions for the design. After, we will combine our ideas and decide which work better, are more practical, are more durable, and will attain the functionality desired of the mechanism. In, general, communicating with the team will definitely play a role in the success or failure of our new modifications thus we begin by building a friendly and great work environment within the group. Below, some examples of sketching done this week are presented.

Failures and Successes

Throughout the many team projects, there has been many failures and successes. Relating to the senior project ahead, many related experiences have been of interest which may be a good help to the new challenges ahead. The first and foremost important thing I have learned is to communicate with the team as much as possible to keep all things moving as smooth as possible. Also, asking for a second opinion to teammates is of upmost importance as when designing and improving models, many simple mistakes can emerge.  Avoiding small mistakes throughout the process will make the project to be more accurate and ultimately more successful. We as groups, obtained the final successful results of our assemblies by taking into consideration every possible scenario which may cause failure. We were able to scale down an automatic door Bluetooth enabled controlled via cellphone. All our successful parts were components were made in order to fulfill the motion desired with the least complication. Although we managed to fulfill our project successfully, not all the went according to plan. Before there was a successful design for the specific door discussed, there were many unsuccessful attempts. Our first designs of the door were not steady enough thus further inspection of weight distribution was considered. Also in another project which involved rotating bars at approximately 125 degrees, having the rotating pivot points at the exact same locations of our four bar linkage was very important. If the specification was not met, the linkage would rotate in a way which impede the intended purpose of the system. We learned of our failure by testing our first modeled parts which were not as evenly positioned to each other as we expected. Overall there were many failures which leaded to the successful completion of each project. Throughout the course of each team assignment, upgrades were made to the design. The first final product sometimes deviated from the first design but in turn improvement was evident. There is not such thing as a perfect design as it can be improved overtime with new and the best possible ideas from each team member.