Tuesday, April 19, 2016

update since last post

We have finalized the cabin design and start the 3D printing process. During the last presentation, we know the wayside pickup team have to use the 3D printer also. So we have to match the schedule who going to use at one time. For the bogie, we are still waiting for the parts to come in

Thursday, March 10, 2016

Update 3/10/2016

Today, our group has presented. So far we are on schedule. We had a new cabin design that is designed in 3 pieces. We have ordered the materials for the vehicles. As soon as they come in, we will start building it.

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Spring semester

In this semester, we will need to build our project out. During the first meeting, we were told to build at least 5 vehicles instead of 10 due to the budget. We have finalized the bogie design and will send the drawings for fabrication soon. The cabin design is still on the way because we would like it to be built 3 pieces. We will finalize the design as soon as possible so that we will have more time for testing later in the semester.

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Progress update since 10/6/2015

Last week our group had a presentation. The feedback is not that good. Our sub-group has to confirm the design of the bogie and present it later in the second presentation.

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Progress update

Since last meeting, our team looked at the small-scale bogie design. The switching mechanism is operated by a servo and piano strings. When we try to move it, the string is not working smoothly. Therefore, we think a more solid connections will have a better performance. Also, we want the bogie design look more alike to the real design. Some modifications will be needed.

I talked about this project with one of my friends during conversations. He told me about some tracking methods that can be implemented. Although our group has already decided which method for this project, I think there are still some more ideas can be tried in the future. One of them is called Triangulation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangulation#/media/File:Triangulation-boat.png

The concept of triangulation is to determine the location of a point by measuring angles to it from known points at either end of a fixed baseline, rather than measuring  distances to the point directly. The point can then be fixed as the third point of a triangle with one known side and two known angles. (Wikipedia) This method can let us track the cart when it transmit signals to the two reference points.

Monday, September 21, 2015

Since last week, I have thought about what to deal with the carts. Also we just received the previous year's small scale group materials. I had gone over some of them and had a clearer picture on what they have done. I learned about the materials used to build the cart and started to think how to redesign the whole cart to make the scale model look alike the real one.

Wednesday, September 16, 2015


One of the main goal is to show how the actual bogie system operate in the small scale model. Besides the wheels to lock the cabin on the rail, we want to add the switching gear design in the small-scale model. To do so, we can use a servo to connect to the mechanism and program the servo when to switch the direction. Hopefully we can reappear the whole bogie design in the model.