Engineering Experience 4: Design a Small Solar Vehicle/2013: Team PM19

Introduction
During this semester's EE4 program,we are going to build a Small Solar Vehicle(SSV) and optimise it for a race.The race track is a combination of 10 meters' flat and 4 meters' ramp.We are going to show you some details about our team and the steps we are going to take.Whether you want to beat us or cheer for us,see the following pages.

Team Name
Flying Dolphins

Cooperation Contract

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Plan of Approach

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Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

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Gantt Chart

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Meeting Reports

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Week 1
During the first week, we had our first seminar in which the coaches introduced some basic instructions about our EE4 program. Our assignment is to build a Small Solar Vehicle and optimize it for a race and it is made up of three parts: Engineering, Enterprising and Educating. Then the coaches divided all students into smaller groups. Our team is consist of six Chinese students: Zou Huajin, Zhao Weihong, Yang Zhiqin, Zhang Xiao, Huang Hao and Qin Xiao. We selected Zou Huajin as our team leader who is intelligent and responsible. Then we got our own tasks: Zou Huajin is in charge of WBS, Zhao Weihong is in charge of the Gentt chart, Yang Zhiqin is in charge of selecting team logo and team name, Zhang Xiao is in charge of meeting reports and wikipages, Huang Hao is in charge of the Plan of Approach, Qin Xiao is in charge of the Cooperation Contract. After working we sent our tasks to our team leader who made careful trim and modification and mailed them to our coach.

Week 2
During this week, we had our second seminar, measured our solar panel, got feedback on materials we handed in last week. The seminar was divided into two sections: first part was held by a team member from our school’s SSV team who told us the development of SSV from 2003 till 2013. The second part was held by our coach who introduced the measurements of the solar panel and basic information about the DC motor. Subsequently, we measured the currents and voltages of the slide rheostat and then calculated the diode factor m via the formula I = Isc - Is(eU/m*N*Ur-1).At last, we got some feedback on the Cooperation Contract, Plan of approach, Gentt chart, WBS, Meeting report ,Team name and logo. Everything was OK except the POA which is too short. The coach also gave us some advice about the SSV construction such as the weight should not be smaller than 750 g, the gear should be of appropriate sizes and so on.

Week 3
During this week,we had our third seminar about the race strategy and gear ratio which includes these basic aspect:1.Solar panel and DC motor 2.Other main influencing forces 3.Race condition 4.What is the transmission ratio 5.Start with your own design 6.Calculate for the “optimal” gear ratio 7.Matlab simulation 8.What to do.Then we discussed the material and basic components of our SSV and assigned the calculation of gear ratio and simulink tasks to two groups respectively with the lead of Zou Huajin and Qin Xiao. Finally every assignment was accomplished quite well.

Week 4
During this week, we got some feedback from our coach about the calculation of the gear ratio.And the coach also briefly introduced some instructions about drawing the Sankey diagram.

Week 5
We had our Matlab Simulink seminar.This seminar mainly introduced the concept of Matlab-Simulink,combining solar cell model, DC motor model and mechanical model and the case simulink. Zou is incharge of the Matlab-Simulink. What he had to do is to determine the resistor load value that makes the solar panel deliver maximum power.Determing the travel distance when the SSV drives down the slope and simulate the race.Our coach said our progress went quite well.There was something going wrong about our another team member's peer assignment, he had to change to our group.

Week 6
This week, we made an appointment with the coach.The coach answered some questions from our team members about the Matlab Simulink and The Calculation of Gear Ratio.Likewise,the coach checked the Sankey Diagram.All team members were present.

Week 7
This week, we got crucial feedback about our case report and process report on which the coming test in week 8 is basically based on.The test is consist of three parts: SSV part 1 ,Simulink and Technical drawing.Meanwhile,we also got the feedback about the peer assignment 1.Although this time the result will be the same,the second peer assignment will take the team members' appearances into account.Now is week 7, we are going to have a test in week 8 and in week 9 we have to test our SSV. So it's time for us to get started to build the SSV. Subsequently we had a brainstorm about the appearance about our SSV and came to a conclution that our SSV is going to be like a ladybird.So we will build the frame of the SSV via CAD and create it in Fablab.

Week 8
After the Eastern holiday, we had an immediate test about SSV part1,Simulink and Technical drawings this week.We also went to the fablab to make our small solar vehicle.We went there for three times,but I think there will be another time next week.

Week 9
After the sixth time to fablab,finally we finished our SSV.On Monday we went there for the forth time and cut a 9 mm thick wooden board into 6 wheels and 8 supports with the laser cutter.There was no time left for us to cut the left body part.So on Tuesday we went to the fablab again.This time we successfully cut the SSV body part.With the help of different sizes of gears and axis，we glued all parts together carefully:gears, wheels,DC motor,axis and guide wheels.We also attached a 9 V battery onto our SSV.But it's only for this test not for the race.Our car went straight only a little bit inclined.The next day,after got the solar panel.We tried our car on the track underground for the first time.It went quite fast. But unfortunately a guide wheel broke when it reached the finishing line.We will solve the problem later.

Week 10
This week,we successfully fixed the broken guide wheel of our SSV. We also got the results of the previous test and some feedback about the test.Subsequently,we did another test to let the car roll down from the slope.Next week,we are going to have a race.

Case SSV part1

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