Week 15: Presentation 3

Today was the last session of the Fall semester. We presented our last presentation to the class, shown below. From this week on we will be finalizing materials and starting our final report for this semester.

Week 14: Preparing for Presentation 3

This week we were updated on the other sub-team's progress. We are preparing for our final presentation and hope to have our analysis complete by then. We need to find the force the actuator will be experiencing under acceleration from the bogies. Also, FEA analysis was done on the new linkage assembly shown below. The lowest safety factor of the new linkage assembly is 1.69, which occurs in the top horizontal links.

Week 13: Starting the code for the active components

This week, we researched about what we would need to power and run the linear actuator. We found that we would need an accelerometer, gyroscope, motor driver, Arduino, and external batteries to do so. Fortunately, Professor Furman has a motor driver we can borrow so we will be using that with a linear actuator found in the Spartan Superway shop. We will dive into the coding process before Thanksgiving break.

Week 12: CAD Revisions

This week we were able to revise our design by shortening the overall vertical length of the suspension. The CAD assembly is shown below. With this new design, the actuator is placed directly in the middle of the linkage so there isn't an internal bending moment within the design. The linkage can achieve a range of 19 degrees in incline to 24 degrees in decline, which is suitable for our purpose.

Figure 1: Revised CAD Design

Week 11: CAD'ing the new design

This week I worked on starting the new CAD model for the design. We altered the design so that the dampening system would act as a link to shorten the vertical length of the suspension. I plan on finishing the CAD model next week.

Week 10: Presentation 2

This week we gave a presentation on our current progress. This month we will be finalizing our design and analysis for the suspension. A link to our second presentation is below:

Week 9: Preparing for Presentation 2

This week we listened to the 1/12th scale teams presentations and were updated on their progress. We will begin to prepare our presentation this coming week.

We have decided to move forward using the linkage design and adding an actuator to control the movements of the linkage. We will also include a past project's solution for vibration and dampening in our project. Here is a CAD drawing of our design without the actuator:

Week 8: Discussing with AJ and the the Summer half-scale team

This week, we considered looking towards an active solution for our passive design to fix the swinging motion that occurred in the rapid prototype as the pod car would experience acceleration. We brought up that a complete revision might be necessary, however after talking to AJ and the  Summer half-scale team, we found that we may be able to use an actuator to lock the linkage in place while accelerating. The actuator can then be used to drive the natural motion of the linkage in an active way and controlled way with an accelerometer  and gyroscope.

Week 7: Report Guidelines and Prototype

Dr. Du gave a 1 hour lecture about the final report guidelines. After, we headed back to Spartan Superway and discussed how to handle the swinging issue in our prototype design.

Over the weekend, Colin, Salvador, and I met at Salvador's house and used his workstation to rapid prototype our design. We used a drill press, popsicle sticks, and fasteners to simulate a linkage similar to our design. Below is a picture of our rapid prototype, which keeps the pod car leveled just like we assumed.

We will meet to further investigate the issues regarding the swinging motion found when using our design.

Week 6: Prototyping plans

This week we were informed about the 1/12th scale team's objectives and plans through their presentations. After, we met to discuss further plans. In order to assure our design's functionality of a passive suspension, we have to decided to begin rapid prototyping our design this Saturday, September 30th.

Week 5: Presentation 1

For this week our team gave our first presentation to our peers about our project and proposal. We also met and discussed plans for rapid prototyping our design. Below is a link to our presentation.

Week 4: Drafting Designs

Our group has come up with three different design iterations for the half-scale suspension system. Colin and I included active suspension systems with hopes for dampening to be involved somewhere in the system. Salvador has brought forth a new and innovative design that levels out the cabin passively instead of actively. We believe that if Salvador's design works, it will be much less complex and easier to achieve in terms of our end goals. We have spoken with Dr. Furman and Eric and they have granted us permission to use the 2016 Active Suspension Team's dampening system, which we hope to incorporate in Salvador's design. Our team will begin to rapid prototyping Salvador's design to assure that there are no flaws. Below is a sketch of Salvador and I's design iterations.

Figure 1: My active suspension design iteration

Figure 2: Salvador's passive suspension design iteration

Week 3: Making Connections

This week, we prepared a Lightning Talk to present to the Spartan Superway team our project description, specifications, and end goals. Salvador, Colin, and I aim to design and build a half-scale suspension that keeps the cabin leveled to the ground while ascending or descending on 17 degree slopes. By the end of this project, we hope to be able to improve passenger comfort and inspire students to join the Spartan Superway team next year.

Figure 1: Half-Scale Bogey

After the presentations we were granted the chance to meet the team who worked on the half-scale bogie and suspension this past summer. They informed us about their progression in the summer, showed us the anatomy of the bogeys, and gave us the program to run the bogeys. The summer team also gave us on advice on using bell cranks and possible solutions for an active and passive suspension. As of now, we have two pinholes on the bogey for reference that the suspension will mount on. Our team has agreed to come up with different design iterations by the end of this week to get them approved by Dr. Furman and Eric Hagstrom.

Week 2: Introductions

This week we were assigned to our sub-project teams. I am apart of Spartan Superway's Half-Scale Suspension Team this year, along with Colin Wong and Salvador Hernandez. One of the primary goals of our project is to allow the cabin to be leveled while ascending or descending on the track. The suspension must also include dampeners to reduce vibrations and ensure a smooth ride for the passengers. The scope of our work consists of building a suspension that is not only reliable and consistent, but easy to manufacture and at a low cost. We hope that our design will be sufficient enough to carry on to the full scale model in the near future.

Week 1: About Me

My name is Joshua Moreno and I am pursuing a Mechanical Engineering degree at San Jose State University. Since I was in grade school, I've always been fond and curious about how things worked. I grew up watching my dad, a mechanic for the USPS, work on vehicles whenever I would have free time. These two influences are what inspired me to start a career in the automotive industry as a Mechanical Engineer. To this day I am proud of what I have accomplished and feel prepared to graduate in the Spring of 2018.

I'm interested in the Spartan Superway Project because I believe in promoting a sustainable future for the years to come. I also hope to make a difference in improving our society's use of transportation.


Email: joshuaRmoreno@gmail.com
Phone: (408)931-0492