Weekly Progress Reports (see sidebar), the Gantt chart, and this Project Management page should be printed out before meetings with the sponsor and instructor.
All team members should be able to explain all items on the progress report.
Place a "*" at the beginning of the title of the active week Progress Report (see * in sidebar).
Project Objectives
Concisely list and prioritize the project objectives and constraints
High Priority Objectives
Reduce the number of SMA wires from 4 to 3 while maintainig X,Y, and theta control
Find alternative bearing disign in order to minimize friction and particle contamination that may occur during the life cycle of the part
Other Constraints and Issues
Large thermal variations (-70 to 175 C)
X,Y range of plus or minus .375 mm, theta range of 1 degree
22 million cycle lifetime
1 micron (.001mm) control resolution
sliding force an order of magnitude below the forces that are used for lateral movement
Part able to withstand 50 pounds of evenly spread loading
Alignment time <= 100ms
Fit within a 52 x 52 mm square area with a square about 44 x 44 mm inside reserved for the chip
WOW Design Solution
3 wire design fulfilling all contraints, while eliminating possibility of particle contamination (remove sliding surfaces)
Risk Reduction Strategy
List areas of risk and strategy that will be used to eliminate risk really in the design process.
SMA control demo
geometry possibilities
bearing materials (long piano wire?)
particles from bearing wear
Tests with a working model to better understand the task
Intermediate Milestones
Identifying meaningful intermediate milestones is a critical for effective project management. Together with your sponsor identify such milestones, and specify specific performance requirements you aim to meet at each milestone.
Concentrating on flexure joints, chose a bearing design based on several proposals
Build 1DoF mockup to test SMA wire, sensors/control with Arduino and a preliminary flexure joint (bearing) design
find suitable geometry for 3 wire design and test/validate in MATLAB and Working Model
build demonstration device to prove geometry
Create CAD model of 3-wire design
Present CAD model to Delta, get approval
IF approved, have model built
program closed loop control system, show feedback/resolution/range using Arduino (maybe 32bitARM?)
determine friction reduction method
build mockup to prove idea works