Engineering Experience 4: Design a Small Solar Vehicle/2012: Team PM12

Team Member

 * Lihua Chen
 * Chaoyi Chen
 * Shoujun Zhang
 * Tianhua Xu
 * Yibo Sun
 * Weihong Zhao
 * Xue Feng
 * Limin Liang

Team Leader
*Draw up the plan for the project and the agenda of the following meeting. *Lead the cooperation of members to achieve the schedule of the whole of the project. *Join the key part of the project with other members. *Contact with the coach and the teacher of team.
 * Lihua Chen

Supervisor
*Point out the strength and weakness in every meeting. *Criticize team leader and other members. *Check whether the agenda has been completed.
 * Chaoyi Chen

Secretary
*Record the meeting reports *Update the wiki page at least once a week *Make budgets
 * Limin Liang

Mechanical Designer
*Consult previous colleagues *Design mechanical structure *Assemble mechanical structure
 * Shoujun Zhang(principal), Yibo Sun, Xue Feng

Analyzer & Simulator
*Calculate the ratio of gears or center of gravity by hand *Simulate with Matlab
 * Tianhua Xu(principal), Chaoyi Chen, Weihong Zhao

Team Rule

 * 1)The meeting for the EE4 discussion will be held every Wednesday at 3 PM at the canteen of Group T.
 * 2)If someone cannot attend the following meeting, he/she has to ask for a leave in advance before midnight of Tuesday.
 * 3)For the one who is late for the meeting, he/she has to treat other team members to something to drink. If someone is late for   more than 3 times, the leader has the right to tell the coach.
 * 4)For every meeting, the leader has to distribute specific assignment to every member and every member has to finish his/her work *in time, otherwise the member will be criticized in next meeting.
 * 5)For every meeting, the secretary ought to make notes very carefully and sort out into a detailed meeting record in time.
 * 6)In order to make the meeting more high-efficient, the leader should make full preparation in advanced.
 * 7)When the meeting begins, the team members are expected to change their phone into vibration mode, so as not to interfere the    meeting conducting smoothly.
 * 8)Every member should pay attention to the meeting, chatting is forbidden when the meeting is on.
 * 9)Show esteem to each other. Don’t try to refute others when they are sharing their opinions.
 * 10)For a key decision, it can only be decided by voting after consulting the coach.

Plan of Approach
Our group's name is Rainbow. During EE4, we will build a small solar vehicle. At last we will hand in a final report. In this plan of approach, we will show you our plan, our goals, limitations and supposition.

Introduction
This plan of approach is the framework of small solar vehicle. We need to build small solar vehicle following this plan, so it is very important for us to make our goals. And we need to preliminary design our solar vehicle in this plan. We will calculate the probably cost as well. But it does not mean that we will make solar vehicle follow this plan absolutely without any changes. Our group will be divided into several parts and we will think about what problems will occur and try to solve them.

Project Description
At first, we will make a Work Breakdown Structure(WBS). It’s a working procedure of the project. It clarifies what we should do in the next few weeks. Then we will make a Gantt Chart according to the WBS, this is the guideline for our project which will be followed closely by each team member. Each line of the Gantt Chart should be executed by a team member. This implies that every one of the team knows their tasks and should stick to that. To build the SSV we need materials, to decide which material we are going to use we need some tests first. After that we will make a list of material and ask everyone’s approval and decide it finally. In one word, we will focus on the Engineer and Enterprising.

Plan
Firstly, we should get the solar battery from our coach. Secondly, design the chassis according to the weight and size of the battery. Then decide the number of the wheels and their size after calculating the driving force and different kinds of resistance. Then, we can design the general structure of the car. After that, we ought to apply it into tests and find problems it may encounter, collect them and improve them.

Goals

 * To build a SSV and make it run
 * To make it as light as possible so that it can run faster, taking stabilization into account.
 * To adjust the center of gravity to make it fly farther.
 * To post our logo in the car.
 * Finally, our solar car Rainbow can complete the race excellently.

Problems and Restrictions
It is our first time to design such a SSV, lacking of experience. And it is inevitable to encounter some difficulties, both in mechanical designing and simulation, for instance, the position of center of gravity and ratio of mutual gears. And the ability of searching for ideal material is also very significant for our whole project. Finally, teamwork is a key factor effecting our success.

Suppositions

 * 1. The car may not run along a straight line.
 * 2. The motor cannot drive the car, because the car is too heavy.
 * 3. One motor can make two or more wheels work.
 * 4. The car is solid enough.

Engineering

 * character for DC-motors: power, losses.
 * data of solar cell: short circuit current, open circuit voltage, efficiency, influence of light intensity on the parameters.
 * dynamic calculations: strength functioning at a mobile vehicle, speed, acceleration, torque, role resistance.
 * calculations concerning maths: panel orientation in function of the position of the sun.
 * simple calculations concerning aerodynamics: resistance in function of the speed.

Enterprising

 * strategic marketing plan: product, price, place, promotion.
 * budget management: decrease cost as much as possible, raise cost performance as much as possible.