Presentation 3

11/23-11/30

This week we prepared for final presentations and worked on the rough draft of the sub-team report. We did not meet until Tuesday as it was Thanksgiving weekend, all work was done online.

Craig finished printing models of the gears we plan on using for our propulsion. A mock-up of the motor was printed as well but there were some difficulties in completing the second half. The purpose for our prototype is to asses the space limitations our current design has with the dimensions provided.

We completed the Bill of materials and are hoping to get funds to at least cover the motors and most of the cost of the gears. Craig plans on using parts from his fathers shop for most of the braking components, which we are continually working on. We are planning on completing the braking design and part of the build over winter break.

11/16-11/23

During this week we brainstormed on ideas for redesigning braking. So far we have went through brake disks, band brakes, and motor braking as possible options but spacing of our current design will not allow for band brake or disk brakes. Additionally considering motor braking we concluded to not risk damaging the motors as they are expensive.

We spoke to our advisers for possible options and are looking at modifying a brake caliper to come in contact with the rail for braking.

Design of propulsion is complete. Plan on 3-D printing the gears to attach to model being built by steering/bogie team.

11/09-11/16

This week we worked on beginning a draft of the final report and organizing information in preparations for presentation 3.

Braking continues to be a problematic issue within our system. We were able to find a band brake that could fit with the current design of driving shaft, however we have yet to determine if brake will be sufficient to stop the system. Additionally we are working on using motor braking as another option. We plan on working closely with the Mechatronics team in further progression for motor braking.

11/2 - 11/9

This week we worked on assembling a list of parts needed for next semesters build of propulsion and braking systems. We received a quote for motors that we plan on using for propulsion.

We plan on using spare parts from the assembly of the bogie in order to create the proper mounting for propulsion.

We continue to work on braking. We planned on using one actuator for both band brakes, but mounting in the middle of the entire bogie can prove to be difficult. We plan to discuss this more at length with steering and professors as we go forth.

Presentation #2

10/26/16

This week was spent more on cad than anything else, with the motor already selected, it was relatively easy to model the motor as well as a mounting bracket to attach it to attach it to the bogie as seen in the images below. In addition, a bevel gear, which was taken from a part supplier site, was mounted to the drive shaft of the motor and bogie, rotating the motion by 90 degrees. As fair as the brakes are concerned, we would have to go with something more compact than a disk brake to fit it onto the main axel. Even the smallest disk brake, which can be seen in the images below cannot fit into the tight space where the gears and motor are located. For this reason, we are looking at using a belt brake, which are typically used on pocket bikes due to their small form factor

Week 8

This week we worked on completing our 2^nd presentation, highlighting most of the CAD work and propulsion design work we have complete. Currently we are in the process of redesigning the braking system to possibly using a band brake on the driving shaft. Additionally, we plan on creating a list of the products we plan to purchase (materials, motors, brake, etc.) and have it complete soon. We also plan on beginning our team report that will be due at the end of the semester.

10/19/16

A great step has been made this weekend in terms of finding the right motors for our system, it is a 24 volt, 4 amp motor, that will output 45Nm of force which is necessary for movement. Although the speed of the pod-car will be slow with these motor, it is the best that we could come up with given the power constraints that we were given. Cad models are already underway and should be ready over the weekend for use in the main assembly.

Week 6

For week 5 not much was done. Refinements on motor sizing calculations and communication among the other sub-teams were conducted and as a result we began to notice issues. One of the main issues was in realizing the amount of current needed to power the motors to provide the torque calculated was too large.

This week (week 6), the entire half scale bogie team had a team meeting after the final presentations in order to clarify a number of issues. One of the issues was regarding the prototype and what was expected of the team as a whole. We wanted to avoid spending too much time on production and manufacturing of prototype along with the other sub teams and we decided that the prototype due at the end of the semester will serve more as testing the integration of other teams. Additionally, we decided as a whole team that the budget requests for the parts needed will be due mid November in order to have parts to work with for early Spring. 

Furthermore, after further reviewing the bogie CAD, we realized that the space for the motors and brakes we had in mind were very limited, and we decided to put on hold our fail-safe braking system we created previously. The motor will remain offset from the bogie as previously discussed. The motor CAD was added to the bogie assembly via GrabCAD (See image). An idea we are currently discussing is the use of a worm gear for our gearbox, as it can provide good gear reduction and "fail-safe" as the wheels can lock if the motor isn't moving. Discussion among the braking/propulsion team, steering, wayside, and solar will be conducted as we all need information from one another to move along. (Power/current requirements, space along the bogie are major topics we plan on covering Wednesday)

Placement of motor on left bogie is circled in red.

Week 4

This week we prepared our design ideas and gathered information in order to present to the class what direction we plan on taking the braking and propulsion systems. We hope to gather input from our teammates in order to continue our work and build a successful system. We are continuing our work on motor sizing and further calculations to determine what specific motor we plan on using and what components will be needed in order to begin the CAD models and implement them with the bogie system in place now. We plan to begin that work at the end of this week.

We plan on having a fail-safe brake system that would use and actuator and a spring along with a simple handle with a rubber attached at the end. The actuator will prevent the spring from compressing and will only compress if the actuator loses power, in which the lever will be pulled down and rub and cause friction along the rails to eventually stop the bogie. (Last week post contained a sketch that describes this process).

It is also determined we will be using brake disc and rotor in order to stop the bogie. Mounting of the system is still being determined as we determine how we drive the bogie (direct drive or two motors driving each side of whole bogie.)

Motor and brake system (with fail-safe brake) integrated to one side of the bogie.

Week 3

This week we updated the gantt chart to accommodate the class presentations due in the upcoming weeks. Additionally, we decided to drive the bogie system by using gear and sprocket and driving the bogie wheels on to the rails. For braking, we would attach brake discs to the wheels. Furthermore, we have sketched design (figure 2) of a fail-safe braking system that would stop the bogie from moving if power were to go out. The lever attached will only make contact to the rail once power to the actuator is interrupted. Final design for the fail-safe brake system will be determined once propulsion and the main braking system designs have been completed.

Figure 1: Updated Gantt chart

Figure 2: Fail-safe braking system:

Week 2 + Propulsion

This week we were notified of absorbing the propulsion sub team. We will now be in charge of developing a brake system and a propulsion system for the bogie. The main focus for propulsion is creating a system that can supply a normal force from the bogie on to the roof of the guide way in order to move along sloped inclines and in dealing with weather conditions, etc. As for the breaking system, we are thinking of going along with brake discs for the bogie. However, we have not decided on the braking system yet as we need to discuss with our teammates on the design of the bogie itself and if it will be redesigned completely or work using similar design as the bogie from last year, as we need to account for space for the brake system. Furthermore, we were discussing on what specifications we will be using in our calculations for braking and how much power will be provided to propulsion and the brake system. We are assuming to work with a 300 lb. load (bogie and cabin) and will begin to look at the different brake systems we can implement within the design parameters we have set with our group while further discussing it with our teammates. 

Member information and Schedules

Craig Hudacko: 8O5-2l6-2637
craighudacko@gmail.com

available
Monday
9am - 11:30am
4pm-7pm
Tuesday
9am-1:30pm
3pm-7pm
Wednesday
9am-11:30am
1:30pm-7pm
Thursday
9am- 1:30pm
6pm-9pm
Friday
9am-11:30am
1:30pm-7pm

Skills:
 All sectors of fabrication
Knowledge of brakes and braking systems
CAD modeling

Other hours can be considered if they do not overlap with courses.

Randy Castillo: 510-692-6531
randy5.cv@gmail.com
Availability-

Monday
All-day

Tuesday
5pm-10pm

Wednesday
All-day

Thursday
5pm-10pm

Friday
2pm-10pm

Weekends free when scheduled.

Skills:
Technical Writing
CAD

Project Proposal:
For our sub-team, the main goal is to design a braking system for the superway half-scale bogie. Our initial ideas are center on using a typical car rotor and caliper attached to the main propulsion system. This style of brake would use hydraulics to apply pressure to the pads and therefor would need a hydraulic ram to apply the pressure to the brakes. If it seems feasible, we will do research into regenerative braking which would be able to feed power back into the system.

Budget:
$1000

Proposed Schedule: