Engineering Experience 4: Design a Small Solar Vehicle/2012: Team PM13

Team Name
SUNPOWER



Team Members
Xin Xin Xiaotian Li Yu Chun Sun Mingzheng Wang Heng Zhang Xitis Lal Shrestha Ibrahim Alramli Chenchen Yu

Cooperation Contract
The structure of our team is a hierarchical structure. It consists of a team leader, engineering head, financial head, educating head and its members. Each member of the team has their own expertise on specific areas which they will work on in the project.

Meeting will be organized at least once a week on Tuesday. More meeting can be organized in a week according to the requirement. The information about additional meeting should be provided to each member of the team effectively at least 24 hours before the time of the meeting. Each meeting consists of a president who is in charge of date, time, place and the topic of the meeting. The president should be prepared and have a clear layout of what is to be discussed in the meeting. The president should inform the member about the layout of the meeting via email. Any illegal absence (absence without a good reason) of the member in the meeting for the first time will be dealt by the absentees having to buy drinks for each member who were present. Second absence without tolerable reason will be dealt more seriously, which is by decreasing the points in the peer assessment. On the third absence, the member will be complained to the coach.

For effective work and to ensure efficiency in the group task, each member of the team will have a mentor. The mentor is responsible to ensure that his subject finishes his work on time and checks if the contents of his work meet the requirements of quality and quantity. If the subject does not submit the work on the due date, then both mentor and his subject will be responsible for the late submission. The late submission is a major offence in the team. If a member misses a deadline then he and his mentor should buy drinks for each member of the team and the losses point in the peer assessment.

Plan of Approach
This is simply giving the idea about what we are doing, the rough idea.

Work Breakdown Structure
This is our Work Breakdown Structure, further distribution will be discussed in Gantt Chart.

Week 1
In the first week, we have the first meeting. We decided the position of each team member and waited for a good start. Based on our initial understanding of the project, Xitis and Sun wrote cooperation contract, Xin and Sun wrote work breakdown structure, Ibra and Xin wrote plan of approach, Zhang and Li wrote Gantt chart. All these documents were written after our discussion. We started searching information and preparing for the brainstorm.

Week 2
In the second week, we got DC motor and solar panel. We measured the solar panel in the lab to calculate the m value. Zhang, Sun and Li started looking for useful materials in the shops in Leuven. Wang started to study MatLAB for the simulation part. Xitis started to search information for calculations such as rolling resistance. Xin and Ibra started to think about racing strategy. Yu started to take notes and updating group blog and managing files. Also, we organized a big dinner in weekend to know each other better.

Week 3
In the third week, we learned how to calculate gear ratio. Then Xin and Wang started working on MatLAB. More importantly, we get our first design in modeling software in the first brainstorm session. We held a meeting to discuss each part of the design in detail. We came out some creative ideas to modify the initial design. We all agreed that the loss should be reduced as much as possible, so we are going to build the SSV as light as possible. Then Sun, Zhang and Li, who took charge of materials, estimated the total mass of the SSV, which is an important parameter that will be used in simulation. Then they started to buy the materials. Yu started to look for shops where can we buy gears and shafts. Ibra worked on the outer shape of SSV to reduce air resistance.

Week 4
In the fourth week, Wang and Xin did the simulation and Simulink in MatLAB and got reasonable result. We choose the best gear ratio. Zhang and Li started calculating Sankey diagram with the data we got from MatLAB. Yu, Sun, Xitis and Xin went to a far away shop and bought suitable screws, aluminum board and a shaft. Also, we found a suitable front wheel with frame made in plastic which is already done and well lubricated. This will save us a lot of time compared to making it by ourselves. Xitis, Ibra and Sun started to think about the SSV Part II in advance.

Week 5
In the fifth week until now, we are working on the Part I report. Sun, Xitis and Ibra spent not as much time as the others, because they focused on SSV Part II. Then we will also have a good start in Part II.