Nikolas Mifsud Spartan Superway

This week, we got the go-ahead from the guideway team to continue with our current designs. There were concerns that the loss of the wooden guideway would result in major changes to the guideway dimensions, and therefore the bogies. Thankfully, the guideway team has figured out how to utilize the old steel guideway with very similar dimensions to their designs. This means we can go ahead with our shop drawings and beginning ordering materials and fabrication. In addition, we have spoken with other teams to clarify our bogie designs and where their components will be integrated. The wayside power team will be designing an enclosure for their capacitors to be mounted to the slave bogie. We worked with the controls team to spec a set of linear actuators for our route selection assembly. The braking and steering team now has full control of the slave bogie to make their modifications.

To begin the spring semester, we first had to adjust to the many changes that came from our new location for Superway. With the loss of the wooden full-scale track, there were worries that the designs would need major modifications to fit the older steel track. Fortunately, the guideway team has worked to ensure that the track design from last semester will remain mostly unchanged. This means that we can continue with little to no change from our past design. The next week will be spent reorganizing the file structure to make it easier to distinguish new from old files. Also, shop drawings will be made for the parts that must be manufactured.

This week was intended to do FEA on the drive bogie and work towards the finishing the modifications to the slave bogie. WE ran into some issues getting the model into ANSYS so the FEA we hoped for was not completed. We will keep working on this to get this important data. This week was mostly spent working with other teams on integrating their systems into the bogies. The Motor Team provided us with final sizing specs, allowing us to correct the mockup model we were using in our CAD assemblies. We also ironed out the spacing for the wheels relative to the tracks. Additionally, we are working on placing the route selection for Guideway Team. Finally, we have decided to use a simple pin system to link the two bogies. This will allow the motion we require for Maker Faire while giving the option of a linkage with more degrees of freedom when needed.

This week, I headed the redesign of the drive bogie. It was a huge relief that Wayside Power confirmed that they could power the two wheel drive system. That allowed me to simplify the designs and throw out the concepts I have for articulation of the wheels for turning. I took cues from Futran on their lower clamping wheel system, designing a rigid set of wheels that do not actively hug the bottom of the rail. These wheels aid in keeping the bogie on the tracks and prevent the drive wheels from losing traction with the rails. Additionally, the two sets of wheels are offset to prevent twisting on the rails. The passive wheel assembly This should mark the end of design for the drive bogie. From here, I will send off the CAD to my teammates for a full set of FEA tests. From there, I will alter the design as needed. I am confident in the design and feel that it may only require a few supports to be ready to build. Drive Bogie V4

This week, we gave presentation #2 as an update on our project progress. Now that we have fully committed to a 2 bogie system, the design work has really picked up the pace. The drive bogie is through its preliminary stages and is ready for some finishing work before being sent off for FEA analysis. As CAD lead, I have taken on most of the design work for the drive bogie as it is being built from scratch. The goal was and continues to be looking towards the half-scale bogie as inspiration. The design used for the half-scale bogie is simplistic while having the potential to bear a large load. Due to our design relegating the majority of the load to the slave bogie, the drive bogie can be made of cheaper materials and have the design simplified even more. The slave bogie modifications are being taken on by my group members. The design will be based on the currently built bogie in the Superway warehouse. That bogie was created with the intention of bearing the load as well as providing ...

This week, we began preparing for Presentation 2 which is scheduled for October 24th, 2018. This presentation is a chance for us to show how much progress we have made since Presentation 1. The major differences over presentation 1 for our group is a much clearer vision for our project. Prior to presentation 1, we were very recently introduced to the concept of a 2 bogie system. We knew almost instantly that this system would work better for the ideas we wished to implement. As Presentation 2 approaches, I can confidently say we are in a much more solid place with the project. We have a good understanding of Superway and the systems relevant to our project. In addition, we have a solid concept for our new drive bogie. The CAD for the initial version is nearly complete. From there, FEA will be performed and the model will be tweaked and prepared for prototyping.

This week was spent refining the drive bogie design to a more concrete idea. This version still requires a set of lower clamping wheels but represents a our vision for the drive bogie.  The Drive bogie is meant to be a small bogie with the sole purpose of propulsion. This bogie will be very lightweight and will not be load bearing. This bogie will allow the slave bogie to be more simplistic and used to carry more components. The next step for the coming weeks is to finish the drive bogie design and modify bogies from previous years for use as a slave bogie. From there, we will perform FEA to ensure the designs can handle their intended loads. Below is a picture of the current drive bogie iteration without wheels: