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.