Our First Meeting of The Semester

We just met with Dr. Beyer for the first time this semester! This meeting provided a lot of motivation for us to get on the ball and get our project going. More to come soon!

Preparing for our semester's end presentation!

Being the end of the semester, tonight we are presenting our progress and accomplishments to the class! We are busy reviewing our slideshow and speeches in between final exams from other classes. We are looking forward to tonight and hope to impress our audience and get valuable feedback.

CAD/CAM Project Results

We ended up getting an 'A' grade for the project shown below. The project involved designing a real world object using SolidWorks and then optimizing and analyzing the structure.

Design

Assembly Drawing

Bike Fork Assembly

Trailer Assembly

Dimensionless image coming soon!

Wheel Assembly

Report

Link to PDF: http://goo.gl/jFMA2m

Update #2 - Sketches from Matt

After all of our meetings with Matt, we finally have sketches depicting a good conceptual view of our trailer.

Matt did a great job depicting our many ideas in his sketches.

Update #1 - First Meetings With Matt

We have had a few short meetings with Matt and further discussed possible features and designs of our bike trailer.

During these meetings we discussed a few possible features to be included and/or incorporated into our design. It is amazing to have Matt as a different perspective to our project as we would have never thought of many of these ideas!

1. Bear can integration for storing food in bear populated areas.

 2. Table like top surface if hard shell is used to store load. Consumers can use the flat surface to cook and temporarily store items.

3.Compartment type hard shell design to "Modularize" the trailer.

4. Wheel placement into the hard cargo shell to shorten overall length at the expense of cargo space.

5. Consider the possibility of using/utilizing the trailer as a single person shelter at night.

New Team Member From Industrial Design

We would like to welcome Matt Sappington to our team!

After sitting through mini presentations from every group in our class, he chose to hop into our group and assist us with the different point of view of industrial design.

We had a small meeting with him already and discussed our plans in more detail than our brief presentation slides. We will have more meetings to come and will post any ideas discussed!

Bike Trailer Classification Scheme

Our group was able to create a classification scheme and choose three main outcomes of the many possible variations.

 

Classification Scheme Evaluation

            Using our classification scheme we were able to come up with 3 different configurations that each could be a successful product however we selected the enclosed configuration as the one that we want to move forward with and continue to develop.

 1.    The first function to be evaluated is the method to attach the trailer, for this function we needed to evaluate the cost effectiveness, ease of use, and user safety.

(a)    The most cost effective option is the rear axle spring bolt, it is an existing product that is easy to acquire and cheap to manufacture. This option is a less user friendly, however it is much safer as it keeps the center of load close to the ground.

(b)   The best option for ease of use would be the seat post clamp, it is the simplest to attach and remove from the bike, and it is the most intuitive, however this option creates a higher center of gravity and is less safe for the user.

(c)    Locking nuts and Rod and Tube are both derivations of these other designs

(d)   We selected the rear axle spring bolt as the best option

 2.    The next function is the shape of the load carrying area.

(a)    The first option is the flatbed design, this option is the simplest and the most versatile however it is not the easiest to produce and it requires extra parts to attach the load to the trailer

(b)   Pannier bags are the easiest produce as we could simply use an existing market product, however they are the most limiting in terms of carrying capacity

(c)    Enclosed soft shell is easy to produce and it limits the carrying capacity

(d)   Enclosed hard shell is also easy to produce and it limits the carrying capacity, however with a rigid shell it allows us to easily add other features and we do not require other attachment devices

(e)    We selected the Enclosed hard shell

 3.    For the position of the load our primary concern was the safety of the user

(a)    Positioning the load on the sides of the wheel keeps the center of gravity low, however it also tends to unbalance the trailer

(b)   Above the wheel raises the center of gravity to high for it to be safe

(c)    In front of the wheel keeps the center of gravity low but makes the trailer to long and limits the turning radius

(d)   About the wheel keeps the center of gravity low while maintaining the turning radius and is the best option

 4.    For the method of transport, we needed to consider the safety of the user and the cost

(a)    For a single wheel design, it keeps the trailer narrow and in line with the bike which benefits the user, however it can be unbalanced if poorly loaded

(b)   For double wheel design, it is wider and doesn't turn as well, however it is harder to unbalance, but it is more expensive

(c)    We selected the Single wheel design as the best option

 5.    Storage of potential energy of the load

(a)    Because we selected the enclosed hard shell design, the shape of the trailer itself will keep the load in place and we do not need any extra methods to attach the load

 6.    Storage of potential energy of the suspension

(a)    The most basic option is a simple spring suspension, this option is the simplest, cheapest, easiest to manufacture, and it requires almost no maintenance. However it is not as effective as a pneumatic suspension

(b)   Pneumatic suspension is more effective, and it is adjustable based on the load. However it is significantly more expensive that the simple spring

(c)    We selected the simple spring as the best option

 7.    Storage of electrical energy – for this category we had to consider if we wanted to store the energy or simple convert it

(a)    The simplest option is no storage, this would mean that only devices that are plugged in at the time of most would be charged, this is also the cheapest option

(b)   Our other option was a form of battery to store the charge for later use. This option is more expensive however it is much more user friendly

(c)    We selected a battery storage as the best option

 8.    Energy conversion is our method of producing electrical energy, user cost is our primary concern

(a)    Rotational converts the energy of the wheel into electrical energy, this is the cheapest option, however it only produces energy while the trailer is in motion and it puts additional load on the user by being the heaviest option and using friction

(b)   Solar power is more expensive however it can produce energy as long as there is daylight, and it is the lightest option

(c)    We were forced at this time to select rotational mainly because of the large cost of solar, however if solar becomes more cost effective we will switch

 9.    Power output

(a)    Our first option is a USA standard power outlet, this is a very cost effective option however it is very large and would require more wiring to convert to 110v AC power

(b)   Our second option is a Standard USB outlet, this option is also very cost effective it is also the simplest system to manufacture, however it does limit the charging ability of the system to devices with a USB cord

(c)    We selected a standard USB outlet