Engineering Experience 4: Design a Small Solar Vehicle/Nl/2013: Team PM9

Introduction

This is the wiki page of the team Louis XIV, called after "le roi solei". The object is to create a solar car. The wiki page will be used to keep you up to date of the progress of the solar car. Below you can find the blog and our meeting reports.

Team members

Arne Claes

Alexander De Baere

Bram Dezwart

Glen Pelgrims

Ellen Van Dievel

Inge Van Mieghem

Blog

Each week a short report will be uploaded to our Wikipage. This give you, the reader, the possibility to follow the progression of our project.

Week 1
This week an introduction seminar was given about the Small Solar Vehicle (SSV) project. The goals of the project were explained briefly. The racetrack is going to be 14m long, including a slope of 4m. Our SSV is also limited to a minimum weight of 0,750 kg. We named our team “LOUIS XIV” after the French king “Louis the 14th“ who was nicknamed ‘the Solar King’. We divided the team functions among the team members and told each other about our individual vision on the project.

- Deadlines: Friday 15/02 18h00: “Analysis Phase”: Cooperation contract, WBS, Plan of Approach and Gantt Chart.

- Seminar: Introduction

Week 2
This week’s seminar was about the solar panel en the DC motor that we have to implement in our SSV. After the seminar, we went to the lab to determine the characteristics of the solar panel. Using our measurements we were able to calculate the diode factor which we will need in further calculations. There also was a feedback session with our coach. He told us the “Analysis Phase” was approved, however we had to make small changes to the Gantt Chart concerning a more efficient spread of the deadlines we set up. Also the Work Breakdown Structure has to be a little more specific.

- Deadlines: Test (Toledo) about solar panel and DC motor

- Seminar: Race strategy and gearbox

Week 3
This week there was a seminar about the race strategy and gear ratio. We received the specifications for the next deadline in week 6: SSV Case 1. We divided the work. One part of the team is going to do research about the design and steering of the SSV and the others are going to calculate different gear ratios. - Deadlines: /

- Seminar: Race strategy and gear ratio

Week 4
A seminar about Mathlab and Simulink was given. We decided we aren’t going to use radio controlled steering. We are going to make a mechanism to minimize friction when our SSV collides with the side wall. A prototype will be drawn using the technical drawing program Solid Work. Last week the gear ratio’s couldn’t be calculated because some parameters were still undetermined. After finishing the gear ratio calculations we are going to try to do some calculations with Mathlab and draw the circuit of our SSV in Simulink. This is of great importance because we’ll need the circuit to make calculations in week 5. - Deadlines: /

- Seminar: Mathlab and Simulink

Week 5
This week we got our last seminar, a seminar about Fablab. We made some adjustments of our frame and went to Fablab for further information. To complete case 1, a team of 3 worked further on the circuit on Simulink and the calculations with Mathlab. The other half of the team worked on the bisection method and the sankey diagrams.

- Seminar: Fablab

Week 6
This week we had to hand in the first Case. We had already did a lot of work on this case, but there was still a lot of fine-tuning to do. The Mathlab part and the numerical calculations were finished by the beginning of the week. However with the Simulink part we encountered some problems. Some of them were solved in time. Others weren’t so easy to figure out. In the end the part where we had to simulate the race didn’t give us reliable information, we encountered a fault that we couldn’t solve. - Deadlines: Friday 22-03, hand in Case SSV part 1 and Simulink Friday 22-03, fill in Peer Assessment 1

- Seminar: /

Week 7
Last week we handed in the first Case. This week we presented the work we individually did to the other members of the team. We looked up what we are supposed to do in the second case. We divided the work of the next case. We discussed and adjusted the frame of the SSV. - Deadlines: /

- Seminar: /

Week 8
This week we printed and assembled our SSV prototype. We cut the gears using the laser cutter and installed everything on the frame. We encountered some problems concerning the movement of the wheels. The body didn’t have sufficient space for the wheels to turn freely. We made some drastic cuts in the body the enable our SSV to be ready for the test run next week. - Deadlines: Tuesday 16-04, test about Case one. Tuesday 23-04, test run SSV

Week 9
In the beginning of the week we tested our SSV on the race track using battery power. It seemed that our frame was solid enough. However we concluded we could do some serious downscaling of the SSV and save up on a lot of weight. We concluded that a collision near the front of the SVV is almost impossible on the track. The gears didn’t work as expected. The SVV wouldn’t start as fast as calculated. The reason for this was that we only used two gears because the third one was broken during assembly. The resulting driven gear was also a bit deformed because it was heated too much during assembly. During the week we made drastic adjustments on the frame and body of the car. We cut it again and the result is satisfying. We managed to save up on a lot of weight as expected. The body is even more solid and impact proof than the former one. The double frame is smaller in height and looks more attractive. We however are concerned about the gears. We cut out new gears and we hope these will work as expected. At the beginning of next week we expect the assembly to be finished. - Deadlines: Tuesday 23-04, test run SSV

Week 10
This week we finished the assembly of the final SSV. We did a test run on the track. Everything worked as expected. Except the gears have more friction than first expected. During the week we worked on the second part of the case. The end of the project is nearing. We look forward to the day of the race. - Deadlines: Tuesday 07-05, Show SSV

Week 11
This week we showed the SSV to the jury. We got third price in the category “design”. We were really satisfied about this price. The rest of the week we worked on the final report of the project, which had to be handed in at Friday. The only thing that we have to do is race. We are looking forward to it. - Deadlines: Friday 10-05, hand in final report