2019/2020 SpartanSuperway Small Scale Team

Team Blog #3  September 25, 2019  Presentation Recap: This week the Small Scale team presented solutions for improving the guideway, bogie, and controls. The bogie will be improved by changing the switch mechanism to latch onto the third rail to prevent the bogie from falling through any gaps in the guideway as shown in Figure 1. The guideway will be improved by laser cutting plywood, which would allow for precision among each track piece. Figure 1. Bogie latching onto right side of third rail.  The bogie will be slightly redesigned to incorporate a two piece snap on to avoid taking apart the track as shown in Figure 2. The wheels of the bogie will be improved by adding friction tape. Figure 2. Snap-Fit design for the two-piece bogie. In addition, the controls team will make an iOS phone application developed in Xcode to control the bogie. The bogie will use a PixyCam to determine each direction to take and for locating each station. The Pix...

Team Blog #2 September 18, 2019 COMPLETED: This week, the team came together to discuss the direction we would take regarding the small scale project. Currently, our idea for the project was to make improvements on the track that had already been built, along with refining the controls and bogie to get it all to work properly. However, after discussing with Mr. Swenson about alternate ideas that he had to the project, we debated on taking a different direction by building even smaller tracks made from laser cut material. PROBLEMS: There are several problems with both the options that we have discussed. Originally, the small scale track as seen in Figure 1 was created from last years small scale team. This design has many imperfections, but we already know all of them. Of course, with all those defects there must be some type of solution, but the problem with that in itself is figuring out which part to focus on first: bogie, controls, or track? Figure 1. Small Sca...

Contact Info: Name Phone Number Email Asmaa Darwish (408)-442-9922 asmaa98darwish@gmail.com Justin Ghieuw (510) 676-6681 j.ghieuw@gmail.com Julio de Pereda Banda (951)-587-7763 chargers1756@gmail.com Shane Fatehi  (408)-306-3044 shane.fatehi@gmail.com Lissette Romero (831)-241-3912 lizzie6879@gmail.com Availability: Scope of Work and Goals: This year, the small scale teams scope of work is to: - Develop a sustainable and efficient manufacturing process for the railway - Design a railway that is repeatable and interchangeable - Redesign bogie and railway (specifically at the y-junction) so that there is no risk of failure at the y-junction - Design a bogey with the necessary sensors/electrical hardware which will allow for multiple pods to be on the railway at the same time without the risk of collision - Possibly develop an app to be able to communicate back and forth with the bogies from users mobile device The...