Kaelan Song SPARTAN Superway Blog

The first prototype was picked up from Prof. Youseffi. Since the original CAD model had to be scaled down 10%, one minor mistake was made (the mounting bracket dimensions were too small) which will be resolved in the next model. Currently I am awaiting on my partner to develop additional drawings for concept generation purposes, as this second prototype will incorporate more aesthetic aspects to it. AJ gave the idea of utilizing the bottom of the cabin as that will be the portion that will be mostly seen by people from below. Currently the idea is to sell that space for advertisements so that it can act as a mobile billboard.

This week I sent the "finalized" .stl file of the cabin components to prof. Youssefi for printing. This first prototype will serve as a test dummy for the controls and bogie team who will be free to modify and manipulate (possibly destroy) as they see fit. This will allow me to know what dimensions need modifications and we can move forward with the aesthetic factors of the cabin.

This week I was able to get a hold of Prof. Youssefi regarding the logistics of getting components printed out for the project. I am scheduled to meet with him the following Wednesday. Ideally, this will mean that I will have a sample prototype available for the other teams to test on no later than by the end of this month.

This week the 12th scale teams delivered their presentations and received respective feedback. All of the 12th scale model teams have begun to move forward with their sub projects in regards to dimensions and what not, and suggestions as to how each team could improve/add to their projected were bounced back between our cabin team, the bogie team, and the controls team. I will hopefully be able to get a CAD model of the cabin drawn up by next class meeting .

Following plans as per our Gantt chart, I plan on making a first draft of CAD models for the cabin based off of sketches I and Darren have developed. These CAD drawings will serve to provide a physical understanding of how the podcar will related to the rest of the 12th scale model project and to see where/what revisions will need to be made in the future.

This week we established set communication lines between us and the other teams of the 12th scale model (slack.com). Hopefully, this will allow for us to exchange ideas and files smoothly and make things much simpler. In addition my teammate and I narrowed down our design ideas and will continue to further narrow it down to a single design. The main design revolves around the aesthetics and door system, though the main difficulty presented will be continuously communicating with the controls and bogie team. While the controls team only needs to feed us their physical info, the dependence on the bogie team and their dependence on us is not yet quite established.

Following our presentations, we were given feedback from a multitude of persons. Since our core concept revolves primarily around aesthetics, we took suggestions and things to consider from our instructors. One of the things we were told to give thought to was how it would be viewed from the underside. People may not be too fond of looking up only to see a giant looming box, so some transparent portions may be incorporated into the final design. Additionally, the cabins should be made to fit with their environment.