Jaspreet Singh

Rapid Prototyping is completed at 1/3 scale.  Main system in CAD is completed, but will need modification due to some issues Bracket for electromagnet needs to be made Issues: Need a way to compress spring after the system is deployed. After inspecting the prototype, I learned that the rod inside the slider assembly may rotate during brake deployment.  FEA still needs to be worked on after a solid design is made. The updated model needs to fix the issues listed above.  Need to decide which material to use. Aluminum will definitely work for Maker Fair, but not sure it will work for the actual design.  Spring and electromagnet has been chosen, which can be seen in our last weeks posting. 

In this week of progress, the spring and electromagnet has been chosen. The calculations determined that the vehicle might need an extra few meters to stop using the system that is currently being designed. Furthermore, the drive bogie will also need a stopping mechanism as well, as it will have a mass of roughly 250kg. Once the design concept of the e-braking system is completed, it will easier to change out springs to increase or decrease braking force.  The CAD model is in development and was delayed since the team couldn't find a proper location to mount the braking system.  Below is a picture of the CAD drawing of the slider mechanism, which is the main component of the system and will see a majority of the force when the brakes are applied. The other components of the system are still in the design progress and should be completed in the next 2-3 days. 

I made a few changes to the emergency braking system from last week. There were several major problems that I was facing with implementing the system between the tracks. The first problem was implementing the system in such as small amount of space. The gap between the tracks is currently 12cm. This is not enough space for the whole mechanism to fit in, as I needed at least another 2 inches. I spoke to the track team to see whether we are able to extend the gap between the tracks a couple more inches. The track team wanted to keep the current dimensions of the track to 12cm because it was somehow related to the Futran system dimensions. Also several major changes needed to be implemented to extend the track a few more inches such as changing supports and widening the bogie. Ultimately, extending the track just for the e-brake system was not worth doing. I started to experiment with several other design concepts. Dr. Furman recommended me to use a wedge braking system. The harder the ...

During this week, I was able to come up with a design for the emergency braking mechanism. The emergency system consists of an  electromagnet, which is connected to a slider assembly and brake pad. Calculations were performed and determined the amount of force needed to stop the bogie within 18 meters. There is still some ambiguity in the project, as we do not know whether we are keeping the old bogie or building a new one.  Space is also a big issue since the braking system needs to fit within 12cm of width. Several braking assemblies are going to need to be implemented on the bogie to have it stop within 18m. To design the braking system adequately, the total mass of the vehicle will need to be known. The mass and velocity will have correlation to the amount of kinetic energy of the vehicle. Below is a diagram of how the emergency braking mechanism will work.