Final Demo :: ECE 445 - Senior Design Laboratory

Final Demo

Description

The Final Demo is the single most important measure (and assignment) for the success of your project. The evaluation is holistic, focused on whether your project is completed, well-designed, reliable, and usable. You will demo your project to your professor, at least one TA, and a few peer reviewers. Other guests (e.g. alumni, high school students, sponsors, or other department affiliates) may also be present.

Requirements and Grading

Students must be able to demonstrate the full functionality of their project by proving that all the requirements in their Requirements and Verification (RV) table are met. Students must bring a printed out version of their block diagram, high level requirements, and RV table. Credit will not be given for feature which cannot be demonstrated.

For tests that are lengthy or require equipment not available at the time of demo, students should have their lab notebooks or printouts ready to show testing data. For any portion of the project which does not function as specified, students should have hypotehses (and supporting evidence) of what is causing the problem. If your demo needs to happen somewhere that is not the Senior Design Lab, you must communicate this with your TA!

The design team should be ready to justify design decisions and discuss any technical aspect of the project or its performance (not just one's own responsibilities). Quantitative results are expected wherever applicable. The demo grade depends on the following general areas: See the Demo Grading Rubric for specific details, but in general, show the following:

  1. Completion: The project has been entirely completed.
  2. Integration: The project is well-integrated, looking more like a final product than a prototype.
  3. Performance: Performance is completely verified, and operation is reliable.
  4. Understanding: Everyone on the project team must must be able to demonstrate understanding of his/her technical work and show that all members have contributed significantly.
  5. Polish & Attention to Detail: The project is well-polished with the user in mind. Good attention to detail is afforded to useability, presentation, and packaging.

 

Submission and Deadlines

Signing-up for a demo time is handled through the PACE system. Again, remember to sign up for a peer review as well.

Control System and User Interface for Hydraulic Bike

Iain Brearton

Featured Project

Parker-Hannifin, a fluid power systems company, hosts an annual competition for the design of a chainless bicycle. A MechSE senior design team of mechanical engineers have created a hydraulic circuit with electromechanical valves, but need a control system, user interface, and electrical power for their system. The user would be able to choose between several operating modes (fluid paths), listed at the end.

My solution to this problem is a custom-designed control system and user interface. Based on sensor feedback and user inputs, the system would change operating modes (fluid paths). Additionally, the system could be improved to suggest the best operating mode by implementing a PI or PID controller. The system would not change modes without user interaction due to safety - previous years' bicycles have gone faster than 20mph.

Previous approaches to this problem have usually not included an electrical engineer. As a result, several teams have historically used commercially-available systems such as Parker's IQAN system (link below) or discrete logic due to a lack of technical knowledge (link below). Apart from these two examples, very little public documentation exists on the electrical control systems used by previous competitors, but I believe that designing a control system and user interface from scratch will be a unique and new approach to controlling the hydraulic system.

I am aiming for a 1-person team as there are 6 MechSE counterparts. I emailed Professor Carney on 10/3/14 and he thought the general concept was acceptable.

Operating modes, simplified:

Direct drive (rider's pedaling power goes directly to hydraulic motor)

Coasting (no power input, motor input and output "shorted")

Charge accumulators (store energy in expanding rubber balloons)

Discharge accumulators (use stored energy to supply power to motor)

Regenerative braking (use motor energy to charge accumulators)

Download Competition Specs: https://uofi.box.com/shared/static/gst4s78tcdmfnwpjmf9hkvuzlu8jf771.pdf

Team using IQAN system (top right corner): https://engineering.purdue.edu/ABE/InfoFor/CurrentStudents/SeniorProjects/2012/GeskeLamneckSparenbergEtAl

Team using discrete logic (page 19): http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/86206/ME450?sequence=1