User:Iahmed2/ENES100/Project 2

Project Preference
1. Autonomous Power Wheel

2. BioVest

3. Smart Shoe

Problem Statement
Now that we are in the implement phase, our main priority is to get the power wheel to drive based on the what we got the prototype to do. But to do this, we first have to build a platform on where we can mount the system on.

Week 1 Narrative
This week was the first week, so I did a lot of measuring because most of our work on the power wheel starts with measuring. I measured the floor of the power wheel because we need to put a platform in the car to mount everything on. I had to measure a lot because there were places in the power wheel that we couldn't build over. I had to measure the distance from the gear shift and the side of the car and I had to measure the place where the gear shift was located because in the future, a subsystem will be built to control the gear shift. I measured out the basics because I needed to figure out what size board to buy.



Another thing I did was to figure out the time it took to drive in a circle, which is half of a figure eight. Since we decided that the car will drive in a figure eight, I needed to find out how long the drive took because the code needs to be updated according to that time. So i did three trials, and found the time to be about 12 seconds. But, then I ran into another problem; the circle was too wide, which meant that the length will be twice as big. The end result has to be that the power wheel will need to drive in both (left and right) directions. so I thought the power wheel can be set to drive in a square, but that won't work because in order to complete a square, the power wheel only needs to turn one direction. The second problem with driving in a square was that it will also take a large amount of space to complete a square. Then I realized the power wheel does't have to drive in any shape; it can drive in a straight line, turn left, and then turn right. This will suffice the qualification of turning both directions.

This week, my task was to do the power measurements, which I have done except for the linear actuator because it is broken (I need to measure the time it takes to extend and retract all the way so the code can be updated). My other task was to buy the materials to start building, which I have done based on the list we came up with.

Week 2 Narrative
My tasks this week were to get a video of the table top prototype working and to do a CAD drawing for the platform design. The table top prototype video was easy to do because we already got the table top prototype to work before. So, all we had to do was to plug the wires in and take a video of it.

My second task was to use Inventor to show how the platform will look. So first, I had to sketch the parts that I had to assemble, which were the linear actuator, the brackets, the gas pedal pusher, and the platform. The linear actuator was already designed by Alex, and the bracket was designed by Jehms. Now all that was left was the gas pedal pusher (which I did for the CAD assignment) and the platform itself. the platform wasn't hard because I just needed to sketch rectangles and extrude them.

After doing the platform sketch. I assembled the parts by placing the individual sketches in the assemble window. Then I rotated each piece to how I wanted it to look and then placed them on the platform. Even though I placed the object where I wanted them to be, I didn't know exactly where they are supposed to go. So, I went back to the platform sketch and put holes on the platform where we are going to drill.

Week 3 Narrative
My tasks this week were to mount the battery and the Arduino on the platform. However, I didn't get to mount the battery and the Arduino because the code for the linear actuator had to be fixed. As a result, the battery and the Arduino were still being use to test out the code for the linear actuator.

However, I was able to help Jehms with the coding and the testing for the linear actuator. We wrote the code so that the gas pedal actuator extends for a short amount of time and then stays there, which means that the power wheel will drive until the gad pedal retracts. Then we wrote the code for the linear actuator so that it goes straight when the gas pedal is first pressed. The, we told the linear actuator to extend for 7 seconds from the midway stroke, which results in the power wheel turning left, and stays like that for 5 seconds. Next, we timed the linear actuator to retract for 14 seconds (time it takes for the linear actuator to retract from being fully extended), which causes the power wheel to turn right and stay like that for 5 seconds. And finally, the linear actuator will extend for 7 seconds to return the actuator to a half stroke length to drive the power wheel straight. This is how the power wheel is programmed to drive and you can view the code /here/.

After assembling the table top prototype, we tested the the code for both the linear actuator and the gas pedal pusher. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJlSSU-BT94

Week 4 Narrative
Since this week was the last week of he project, we had to put our finishing touches on the power wheel. So, this weeks tasks were to mount everything onto the power wheel, get the power wheel to drive, and to tweak anything that needed fixing. My tasks this week were to figure out a way to mount the the battery and the Arduino.

The requirements for the mounting of these two things was that they had to be removable, they shouldn't move while the power wheel is in motion, and they had to be weather- resistant. Weather-resistance is not our first priority because we don't plan on driving the power wheel in bad weather. The only reason it is important because it is useful to future groups who will work on this project. After discussing the problem, we decided that we also didn't want to drill into the platform anymore.

So, the final design that met the criteria was to make a shallow box to fit the battery and hot glue it to the platform. Also, I found an Arduino box that was 3D printed, so I decided to glue it on the platform so it can house the Arduino. Because of time constraints, I was not able to make a box for the battery. This was because the we had issues with the code and we still needed to test the power wheel's drive, which was our first priority. We spent two days trying to get the code to work properly because the power wheel wasn't following the code that we were writing. The problem we kept running into was the timing on the linear and gas pedal actuator. We thought the time for the linear actuator to move from neutral position to either fully extended or fully retracted was 7 seconds, which meant that the linear actuator took 14 seconds to retract fully from being extended to the full length. However, this was not the case as we tested because the linear actuator was fully retracting from the max length in 7 seconds. We also were getting confused with the counter-clockwise and clockwise function on the code, but we eventually figured it out. Basically, we spent the two days using the trial and error method to get the power wheel to drive. We also took videos of the power wheel turning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21hh1yzLZHM&feature=youtu.be and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Y2T3db2Hew.