Work Summary 9/14-9/20

Last week, I helped get the track get ready for the 43rd Annual Silicon Valley Electric Vehicle Show along with Kenny Strickland, Kenneth Aganon, Marc Acoba, David Chen, Thomas Nguyen, and Michael Hurst. I went to the meeting that was held on Friday where we talked about the future of the project, with a gentleman named Bill James, and also disassembled the track for the first time. I thought that the track was going to be hard to disassemble but we had enough people to get it apart in a matter of minutes. We then packed the track into Kenny Strickland's car and fit all the pods and tools into my car. Then I went to the event at De Anza College the next morning where we all assembled the track and ran the pods.

Doing this event made me open my eyes to improvements that need to be made to the track/pod. The track needs to be made out less pieces and needs a better supporting system because the rods are hard to make the track level. The pod needs the most improvement. The main switching mechanism needs to be more sturdy. The piano wire that connects the servo to the guideways is not ideal and makes the pod fall off the track sometimes. Another thing is that some of the screws within the pod get loose but there is no way to get a tool in there to tighten them without disassembling the entire pod. We also need to cover all the circuit boards in a protective case as well. The biggest thing we found out is the lack of a fail safe is really bad. The pod fell off the track multiple times during the event which is not good. The event was really cool. We met a lot of people that were interested in what we are doing and even won an award for best Student Project.

Track Dissection (Blog #2)

As part of the small scale team, not only do I have to tackle the programming/controls part of the project but also the track part too. The sketch below represents a birds eye view of the existing track. The red dashed lines represent where we should implement a cutoff. If we put a cutoff in the red-dashed regions, we can have the main track be in five parts. The red circles also represent attach points so the wayside pickups can also be disassembled easier too. Having the track in these pieces will enable us to disassemble/assemble the track faster while still being easy to transport. Another benefit will be for smoother ride of the pods going around the track because there will be less attach points to ride over.

Suggested Improvements

The one thing I would like to improve on the track is the track support itself. In class on 9/2, one of the captains of the small scale showed us a demonstration of how the whole system works. While the pod was going around the track, I noticed that the supports were very wobbly. Luckily there is two different ways to fix this problem. Through my knowledge of material science, I show below how to find two solutions to fix the deflection problem of the rod.

• Assumptions - 60 inch long, 3/16 inch diameter 6061 Aluminum Rod

Strain on pipe

Moment was derived from last years data of pod weighing 2 pounds and a rod length of 60 inches.

• Solution 1 -Increase the diameter of the pipe
• If we increase the diameter of the pipe, the moment of inertia will go up will which will lead to a smaller stress and strain. The smaller strain will lead to less bending.
• Solution 2 - Use a stronger material
• If we increase the Young's Modulus of the pipe, the strain will get smaller which will decrease the amount of deflection.

Summary- Week of 9/2-9/9

In last weeks meeting, I chose to join the small scale group. We decided to split the group into tiny subgroups that tackled a specific problem/improvement. Some subgroups included the track design, controls, bird-eye view camera mount, and solar panel. I put my name in the track design and the controls team. That is what we did last week in class. After class, I looked into different ways to improve the bends of the track and different methods to connect sections of the track together. I also thought of different ways to suspend the track.

My Bio

My name is Ali Bootwala and I am a Senior in Mechanical Engineering with a capstone in Mechatronics. I was born and raised in the Bay Area and live in South San Jose.With my capstone in Mechatronics, I hope to ensure passenger safety with the collision aversion hardware/software and see how we can make the Superway be a convenient mode of transportation for people to use everyday. I also would like to improve the small scale track to make the passenger car move smoothly around corners. In my free time, I like to watch basketball, football, and listen to music.