Engineering Experience 4: Design a Small Solar Vehicle/2013: Team AM1

Feb. 15, 2013
Cooperation Contract

Plan of Approach

Work Breakdown Structure

Gantt Chart

March 22, 2013
Case SSV part 1 + Case Simulink

May 10, 2013
Case SSV part II

Final process report

2D sketch of the SSV

3D model of the SSV

Meeting 1: February 12, 2013
During this introduction lesson, everyone was informed concerning the task and several teams were formed.

Every member of our team was present and we first started with making some agreements and a team leader was appointed. After exchanging our contactdata we discussed the first assignment, which consisted of making a Work Breakdown Structure, a Gantt Chart, a Plan of Approach and a Cooperation Agreement. Everyone of the team was given a task so everyone could work on his task at home. We aslo decide to share all the documents in Dropbox so it would be easy to work as a team on the different tasks.

Meeting 2: February 19, 2013
In this meeting, we had a presentation about solarpanels and DC motors. Afterwards we had to do some measurements to determin the diode factor. After completing this task we received a DC motor and we discussed some ideas about the design of our SVV. We made plans for the next meeting and the teamleader asked everyone to look at home for useful materials, components,...

Meeting 3: February 26, 2013
During this meeting we first had a presentation about 'Race strategy and gear ratio'. After the presentation we sat together with our team we discussed the ideas of some designs of the SVV further and everyone mentioned the materials, components they had available that we could use for our SVV. We also started an area sketch of our SVV in Solid Edge and made the first calculations. Finally we distributed different tasks.

Meeting 4: march 5,2013
We first had a presentation about simulink. After the presentation we immediately started with the simulations of 10 different gear ratios. We determined the best gear ratio and so we knew which gears we had to buy. we discussed some ideas about the design, especially if a casing is needed or not. Finally different tasks were distributed again.

Meeting 5: march 12, 2013
We had our last seminar during this meeting. The seminar was about Fablab and how we can use all the equipment and machines. After the presentation we devided our team in two parts, one part worked on the calculations of the SSV and the other part started working on the Simulink Case. After some hours the calculation report was going well but with Simulink we had some problems. After the briefing with the coach, everything became more clear.

Meeting 6: march 19, 2013
We discovered some errors in our calculations and after the briefing with our coach, we managed to solve the problems and corrected the errors. This time one part of the team worked on the Sankey diagram and the other part continued working on the Simulink Case. At the end of the meeting, everything was as good as finished. Now we only have to put everything in one document and give it a good layout.

Meeting 7: april 23, 2013
We did our first test down the track, without using the solar panel or the motor. We had to do this to compare the result of the test with the calculations we did using MATLAB and Simulink. Using these results we will calculate the correct rolling resistance and make new Sankey diagrams.

Meeting 8: april 25, 2013
We connected the motors as well as the servomotor we use to steer the vehicle. We then tested the SSV on the track but instead of using the solar panel we used a 9V battery. We tested some different situations and settings to see what would work best. We also timed the race to compare the results with the simulations. At the end we discussed what still needed to happen before the deadline.

Meeting 9: april 30, 2013
We came together to work on the calculations of the second case of the SSV. We also worked on the system to put the solar panel on the SSV and the mechanism to work the solar panel in different possitions with remote control. Finally we painted the SSV so it was completely ready for the race on May 7.

Meeting 10: May 8, 2013
This would be the last meeting. We worked a little bit more on the calculations of the second case of the SSV and devided the tasks so that every team member knew what he had to do before the deadline of this case on May 10.