Intermediate Scale

Guideway

Project Scope and Objectives

Guideway TeamDesign a Guideway

  1. Must demonstrate a 17 degree incline and decline.
  2. Must support the bogie, the structure that supports the entire mechanism and holds up the cabin.
  3. Must be easy to disassemble and assemble.
  4. Must support solar panels and wayside pickup.

Project Results

  1. Successfully provided rails that travel downward in 17 degrees.
  2. Successfully designed guideway can hold the require load of the bogie, cabin and power supplies.
  3. Demonstrated sections of rail can easily be disassembled, transported, and assembled.
  4. Guideway can support power supplies.

Bogie/ Fail-safe Mechanisms

Steering Breaking TeamTeam Members

  • Cassandra Acosta (Lead)
  • Aaron Cheng
  • Christopher McCormick
  • Steven Luong
  • Uday Ranjeet
  • Vicente Viqueira

Project Scope and Objectives

Guideway Rendering

  1. Re-design bogie to be able to traverse up and down a guideway sloped at ±17° (30% grade) at 1-2 mph.
  2. Re-design bogie and h-bar to integrate all supporting teams (propulsion, steering, braking, guideway, suspension, wayside power, and cabin).
  3. Design fail-safe mechanisms to prevent the bogie from falling off the guideway in case the switching mechanism or main support wheels fail.

Project Results

  1. Successfully designed and constructed a fail-safe mechanism with a safety factor of 4.
  2. Successfully designed and constructed fail-safe mechanisms that can support 300lbs (weight of the bogie and all connected components).
  3. Successfully constructed a bogie that incorporates all the supporting teams’ designs.
  4. Demonstrated the bogie traversing the guideway slope.

Bogie Rendering

Active Suspension

Active suspension TeamStudent Team Members

  • Scott Garfield (Team Leader)
  • Tyler Broder
  • Matt Menezes
  • Dale Franklin
  • Enkhjin Baasandorj

Project Scope and Objectives

Create a suspension system for the Spartan Superway that will isolate the cabin from vibration and keep the cabin in a comfortable orientation while traveling down the railway.

  1. The suspension system must keep the cabin level as it traverses through up to 17 degrees of tilt.
  2. The suspension system must reduce the transmitted vibrations from possible variations in the railway.
  3. The suspension system must be able to support the estimated mass of the intermediate scale cabin.
  4. As the pod arrives at a station, the suspension system must level the floor of the cabin with the floor of the platform to provide utmost accessibility.

Project Results

  1. Successfully designed, modeled, simulated, and fabricated a tension-to-compression suspension system.
  2. Prototyped controls code implementing an IMU and a PID control algorithm.

Suspenstion System

Propulsion

Propulsion TeamStudent Team Members

  • Christopher McCormick (Lead)
  • Cassandra Acosta
  • Aaron Cheng
  • Steven Luong
  • Uday Ranjeet
  • Vicente Viqueira

Project Scope and Objectives

Design propulsion to allow intermediate-scale bogie to traverse the sloped, suspended guideway.

  1. Choose and obtain a hub motor that will propel the 350lb (approx.) bogie and cabin up a slope of 17º.
  2. Design a mount to secure the motor to the bogie.
  3. Design a spring mechanism to press the hub motor into the ceiling of the track with enough force to produce sufficient friction to move the bogie up the slope.
  4. Interface the motor with a microcontroller to control it.

Project Results

  1. Found power requirements to be approximately 0.5HP and required propulsion force to be 470N (47.8 N-m at 4in radius) to move the vehicle up the slope at 2mph.
  2. Successfully obtained a motor and controller that fulfilled our power and torque requirements.
  3. Modified the H-bar of the original bogie design to accommodate the size of the motor wheel and mount.
  4. Programmed the Arduino microcontroller to operate propulsion, steering, and braking.

Propulsion

Steering Mechanism / Braking System

Student Team Members

Steering Mechanism Render 1
  • Thang Ngo
  • Chin Ming Lui
  • Jeffrey Chau

Project Scope and Objectives

Design an automatic steering mechanism and braking system for Spartan Superway

  1. Steering Mechanism Render 2Design a braking system using mechanical disc brake that is programmed to an Arduino
  2. Design a steering mechanism that is powered by a stepper motor for fast and optimal performance
  3. Design structure of bogie that synchronizes motion of upper and lower control arms for optimal switching and better overall reliability and efficiency
  4. Build a ½ scale model of the proposed personal rapid transit system (PRT)

Project Results

  1. Successfully designed, constructed, and tested steering mechanism and brake system
  2. Successfully simulated the control of steering mechanism and brake on the guideway
  3. Steering Mechanism Render 3Demonstrated sophisticated design of the structure of the bogie
  4. Measured and optimized the steering mechanism and brake system
  5. Evaluated the power requirements for the steering mechanism and brake system
  6. Successfully and efficiently integrated the control arms and braking system into the structure of the bogie

Cabin

Cabin Team

Student Team Members

  • Lucas Petersen (Team Leader)
  • Mark Acoba
  • Rebecca Alvarez

Project Scope and Objective

Design a prototype cabin for a sustainable public rapid transit system (PRT).

  1. Design an aesthetically pleasing interior and exterior views in one model.
  2. Design a model that will include new safety features and needs for the riders, including ADA standards and bike storage.
  3. Design an aerodynamic shape to minimize overall drag.

Project Results

  1. Completed a design for a full-scale cabin for PRT system.
  2. Successfully designed a cabin with drag coefficient at (1.3)
  3. Successfully completed a fully detailed fourth-scale model cabin.
  4. Successfully completed an intermediate scale model of the cabin to complement the intermediate model of track assembly.

Cabin Render Cabin Render 2

Wayside Power

Wayside TeamStudent Team Members

  • Garrett Gemmel
  • Michael Hurst
  • Dianna Man
  • Karmjot Singh

Project Scope and Objectives

  1. Design a working power interface system for the Spartan Superway.
  2. Research methods to supply power using Solar Panels.
  3. Design a cost-effective power interface system to supply power to the power components of the pod cars.
  4. Integrate solar energy to the wayside grid to power using renewable and clean energy.
  5. Design for safety and aesthetics.

Project Results

  1. Successfully researched methods for power interfaces.
  2. Successfully designed a wayside system consisting of a 4th rail configuration.
  3. Integrated the system to power up the Spartan Superway using wayside pickup.
  4. Fabricated 80% of the components needed.

 Wayside Rendering

Intermediate Scale Solar

Intermediate TeamStudent Team Members

  • Augustine Soucy (Team Leader)
  • David De Ocampo
  • David Luo
  • Jaymie Zapata

Project Scope and Objectives

Develop a mounting system for intermediate scale and create a performance analysis tool for planning of deployment.

Mounting System Requirements

  1. Modular- easy to assemble and take apart
  2. Design a frame that would eliminate the need a tracking system on the full-scale model.
  3. Able to fully power the intermediate solar scale track
  4. Structurally sturdy and aesthetically pleasing

Performance Tool Analysis Requirements

  1. Provide performance analysis of solar panels needed for deployment

Project Results

  1. Successfully developed, constructed, and tested a mounting system that fits the requirements.
  2. Successfully created performance analysis tool that provides necessary information for deployment of solar panels.

Solar Farm