Week 15 (Nov 30 - Dec7)

For first half of the week, I was working on the rough draft of our final report. I put a lot of time on this, so that when we have to turn in the final draft, it would be easier for us because we just need to make a few corrections. For the second half of the week, we are planning which parts to make a 3D model out of and how to make the models look nice, because from previously the quality of the parts is not up to par.

Week 14 (Nov 23 - Nov 30)

For this week, We found out why our force equations from the previous post wouldn't give us values when we inputted them into MatLab. We realized we forget to apply force analysis to the overall system because we had 9 equation with 12 unknowns. The calculations can be seen below.

Week 13 (Nov 16 - Nov 23)

For this week I worked on the updated force analysis of our system because after consulting a colleague I was able to fix it. The calculations can be seen below.

Week 12 (Nov 9 - Nov 16)

For this week, we applied what we learned in our vibrations class to our system. The calculations can be seen below. We basically found the equation of motion for our suspension.

From this we can calculate the spring and damping coefficient needed for our system to operate.

Week 11 (Nov 2 - Nov 9)

For this week, I learned how to operate the 3D printer in our garage. This will be helpful because now we can do a rapid prototype to see if our system will work. In addition this was the first piece we printed, so there are some ways to clean up the piece by updating/fixing the CAD drawings. A picture of the 3D printer in motion printing one of our parts can be seen in the Active Suspension Team Blog.

Week 10 (Oct 26 - Nov 2)

For this week personally I had to finalize my calculations for the presentation by going over it again and making sure they make sense. The calculations include the graphical, force, and stress analysis. In addition I also had to practice my part for the presentation, so that we can improve from the previous presentation.

Week 9 (Oct 19 - Oct 26)

For this week personally, In addition to finishing my part of the presentation, I finished working on the force analysis and come up with all the different forces applied to the mechanism. Subsequently, using stress analysis I was able to come up with the needed cross-sectional area for our mechanism. As a team, we are currently working on determine the correct size of the motor.

Week 8 (Oct 12 - Oct 19)

For the week of October 12 through October 19, I personally started applying the force analysis to the tilt mechanism, which can be shown below. It's a combination of what I learned from my statics and mechanical design class in order to execute the amount of force that the tilt mechanism can take.

Figure 1: Calculations of Force Analysis on tilt mechanism

Week 7 (10/5 - 10/12)

For this week personally, I had to familiarize myself with Solid Works and Grab Cad with the help of my partner. Solid Works is kind of similar to Creo, which I am more comfortable with, but the buttons are all in different places. My partner is able to get me up to speed, so that I can start making parts for the suspension system.

Week 6 (September 28 - October 4)

For the week of September 28 and October 4 we are still in the process of researching in order to better our design, because it is hard to find any information about a controlled active suspension anywhere.

Compared to Week 4's research, instead of looking up professional articles, I decided to just use google instead to see if I can get anything useful. Pretty much found the same thing, suspension systems for a car. Although, the figure below is a schematic of they want to model external disturbances and quantify the design objectives such as the road, quality of sensors, and availability of controlled forces. It will be interesting to see if I can somehow apply this to our design by replacing the road variable with a railing variable or anything of that matter.

https://www.mathworks.com/help/robust/gs/active-suspension-control-design.html

Week 5 (9/21-9/28)

For my personal blog for the week of September 21 - September 28, I went to the public launch of the Paseo Public Prototyping Challenge and Festival on Wednesday, September 21is at the Hammer Theater Center in Downtown San Jose. In this event I was able to listen to speakers basically from all over Silicon Valley and give their stance on innovation. From the many speakers I heard, only a couple phrases stuck with me, such as the one where the speaker basically says everywhere else in the world, doesn't need you, but San Jose needs you. So as an SJSU student my priority is innovating the city of San Jose first, before any other city and the Spartan Superway allows me to just do that. Another thing that stuck with me, that basically every speaker touched on is what's next? They all talked about how can we make San Jose better or what's a solution to all the problems caused by traffic.

Ultimately, this was an inspiring event which will motivate me even more to try my best in the Spartan Superway project to actually get something working. Below is a picture of me right before the event started.

Week 4

For the week of September 14 - September 21 I did some research on some active suspension articles that I was able to obtain through the Martin Luther King Jr. Library web page. I wanted to look at professional articles to see how they approach designing an active suspension. Even though these articles are for four wheel vehicles, I can still take some of their ideas and apply it to the active suspension of the pod car. Most of these articles displayed there controls schematic on how they plan to utilize the active suspension and along with all of their calculations. One interesting concept I got from these articles is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1 shows how everything is applied and it seems like it is working perfectly fine for them. So if I can some how take some parts such as their suspension system setup and be able to apply it to the pod car of the spartan super way, then our design process can go a lot smoother.

The links for the articles:
-http://discover.sjlibrary.org:50080/ebsco-w-b/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=71d2a00f-c7d9-4791-8709-f33db669ad47%40sessionmgr104&vid=1&hid=128
-http://discover.sjlibrary.org:50080/ebsco-w-a/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=27063e12-71b6-42a2-bed3-b1a59116031f%40sessionmgr4009&vid=1&hid=4201
-http://discover.sjlibrary.org:50080/ebsco-w-b/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=2528cf4d-cbe1-42e3-ad32-6e2122b30bf9%40sessionmgr101&vid=1&hid=128

Week 3

For the week of September 7 - September 14, my partner and I are in the beginning stages of designing the active suspension. We each come up with ideas and then we critique them to come up with the best overall and cost effective design. For example, a potential idea was using a scissor lift as a way to level the car. This is necessary when the car is held by springs because once a certain amount of weight enters the car it will create a displacement in the springs which will cause the car to be lower than what it is supposed to be. If the car is significantly lowered, it will not align with the platform resulting in unsafe loading and unloading for the passengers. This is why a leveling system is necessary if the car is hanging from springs. Although if we have the springs/shock absorbers in the horizontal position rather than the car hanging for it, then would it be necessary to add the self-leveling system to the bogie? As engineers currency is always a huge concern, so if there is any opportunity to save money without sacrificing the quality of the bogie, then that would be a huge plus for us. My partner and I are still deciding whether or not to spend the money to get a leveling system, which ultimately depends on the final design we choose.

Assignment 2

From the previous active suspension design, some failures I see include having 3 tubes being connected to one spot. This creates a lot of stress on just that one little spot, this is important to note because that could be the difference from the super way moving to its destination and falling to the ground. It even shows in their finite element analysis that there is so much stress being applied to where the 3 rods are being connected. If I could fix this design, I would make sure the rods separated and not connected to one spot which will allow for the stress to be distributed equally to the parts holding it. I understand that they were trying to make it as compact as possible, but safety comes first before anything.

One aspect I did like was their vibration isolation system that they calculated and showed that an under damp system is the most effective. Since they have springs carrying the cabin, they will have a displacement between them once a certain amount of passengers are inside. Therefore for them to have an effective active suspension, they need a self-leveling system otherwise their design will be useless.

Another feature I liked from last year’s design is that it was a futuristic design, which makes it look nice. It will make people want to ride it when everything is said and done. I also liked the fact that they looked at other suspension railways from all over the world and tried to take what they thought was a good idea from each one and tried to combine it altogether in the super way project.