Embedded Files
Exercise 10 - Design Analysis
2018-04-26
For Exercise #10, the team accomplished the following tasks:
- Revisit the morphological chart & develop a decision matrix with weighting, rating, and decision factors:
With the conclusion of the rank-ordered design goals and Kepner-Tregoe decision matrix exercises, the decision to proceed with an uncollimated wide-beam system is confirmed in a quantifiable manner. The onmidirectional low-power system is viable, but potentially coverage-limited and could require extensive setup time at a new worksite. The beam-forming system is theoretically simpler to use, however much more difficult to develop and could potentially pose a hazard to entities swept by the high-power ultrasonic beam. The uncollimated widebeam optical system gives a very good usability and safety score, while also being achievable to develop.
* The LASER solution is a no-go, due to the fact that fine-aiming (≤0.25˚) is required for all targets. This constraint, when applied to a handheld platform with a moving receiver (other teammate, ship hull, etc.) in low-visibility water with currents and other ocean life, is not viable at this time. (Beam angle cone doubled from given land values to include particulate, refraction, and diffusion considerations. See references page for details.)
Exercises 8 & 9 - Ethics, Liability, and Hazards
2018-04-17
For Exercises #8 and 9, the team accomplished the following tasks:
- Identify any potential hazards in the proposed design
- Foreseeable misuses
- Changes that may occur during the useful lifetime
- Disposal after the useful life has ended
- Provide solutions to eliminate hazards of the proposed design
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Foreseeable misuses
- Light strength hazard (people & wildlife) - disclaimer and user training
Changes that may occur during the useful lifetime
- Changes to interfaced technology (data input format, soft/hard) - software/firmware updates at depot service
- Battery degradation - software monitoring and depot service schedule
- Light degradation - disclaimer in the manual and depot service schedule
- Other hardware degradation - MTBF analysis and depot service schedule
Disposal after the useful life has ended
- The following are already covered by established recycling workflows:
- Aluminum housing
- Glass/sapphire display cover
- Logic PCB assembly
- Rechargeable Battery
- Packaging - plastic-free commitment, cardboard packaging with biodegradable filling
Exercise 7 - Synthesis
2018-04-05
For Exercise #7, the team accomplished the following tasks:
- Provide a morphological chart to combine ideas for achieving desired goals or functions of the proposed design
Exercise 6 - Abstraction and Modeling
2018-03-29
For Exercise #6, the team accomplished the following tasks:
- Provide applicable models for the project proposal
- A system model
- A process model
Exercise 5 - Intellectual Properties
2018-03-22
For Exercise #5, the team accomplished the following tasks:
- Searching and including relevant results of the design proposal for any of the following:
- Trademark
- Service mark
- Copyright
- Copyleft
- Patent
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Our team's results for technologies related to our proposal include:
Copyleft (CC-GPL hybrid):
Defined Commercial Terms of Use:
Patents:
Public Domain:
Standards:
Exercise 4 - Solution Devenlopment
2018-02-22
For Exercise #4, the team accomplished the following tasks:
- Design each task in a problem-solving effort so that it is most fruitful and provides the most information or guidance
- Use various attributes of the final solution state to guide earlier decisions made along the solution path
- Define design goals and design specifications
- Eliminate paths that do not satisfy the desired design goals and/or specification
Subdividing the Problem into Design Goals
General design goals (in order of precedence-effect importance)
- Safety
- Legal/Human constraint: Equipment will not harm personnel and will both fail safely & reliably.
- Reliability
- Functional Constraint: Positive failure, active error correction
- Ease of operation or operating conditions
- Physical specification: easy & intuitive user interface
- Ergonomic specification: large buttons / switches, friendly to gloved hands
- Performance
- Functional specification: for audio, ≥ 20k samples/sec @ 16 bits per sample (prior to compression)
- Durability
- Long lifespan: at least 5 years for final prototype
- Minimum cost
- Economic Constraint: For M.V.P., fabrication and development cost ≤ $10k.
- Environmental protection
- Environmental Constraint: Emissions won’t damage the reef, whales, dolphins, etc.
- Minimum maintenance and ease of maintenance
- Physical Constraint: maintenance required will be freshwater rinse after use and minimal annual seal overhaul
- Use of standard parts
- Operational Constraint: ease of in-field Line Replaceable Unit (LRU) swaps
- Public acceptance
- Economic Constraint: economic and safety benefits must be plainly apparent to general public
Specific design goals
- Compact (e.g.: suitable for personnel & drone)
- Physical Constraint: Volume ≤ 1 L, Mass ≤ 1 kg
- Corrosion-resistance
- Materials Specification: Brass, Stainless Steel, Titanium, Delrin, Silicone, etc.
- Waterproof
- To depth: 10 m for M.V.P., 100 m for final prototype
Solution Comparison Table
The team has compared the Dunker Diagram specific solutions to the Design Goals, assigning them to both enhancing and detrimental categories. Taking all of the Design Goals into account, as well as the current state-of-the-art with modular technology and development (and the team's abilities), the team has decided to pursue development of the following proposed solutions:
Collimated / LASER using Streaming and Uncollimated Light using Databurst
Exercise 3 - Problem Formulation
2018-02-15
For Exercise #3, the team accomplished the following tasks:
- Generate problem statements that focus on the function to be achieved by any viable design solution
- Apply a number of techniques and strategies including the statement-restatement technique, the source/cause approach, the revision method, present state-desired state (PS-DS) strategy, and Duncker diagrams
- Perform Kepner-Tregoe (KT) situation analysis to evaluate various aspects of a situation in terms of three criteria (timing, trend, and impact), thereby determining what is known, which tasks should be performed, and in what order these tasks should be completed
- Perform KT problem analysis to determine possible causes of a problem
The initial Why-Why diagram, Dunker diagram, and Kepner-Tregoe analysis are shown below.
Kepner-Tregoe Problem Analysis
Exercise 2 - Identifying Problems & Needs
2018-02-08
For Exercise #2, the team accomplished the following tasks as-briefed during the class lecture:
- Identified societal needs that justified a concerted Electrical and Computer Engineering problem solving effort.
- Prepared a design proposal that justified the need to develop a technical solution to a problem.
- Objective: Why are we trying to solve this problem?
- Background: Who and where will this affect, and what led up to this?
- Methodology: How will the solution and design be completed, and when?
- Expected results: What will the solution accomplish?
- Costs: An estimate to complete design solution.
The initial brainstorming process output is shown below, which was done prior to needs selection:
Process
The team began by brainstorming problems which society faces that have engineering solutions. They also looked at current engineering solutions to older problems that could be improved upon. After that, the team decided to make a list of personal projects they hoped to design at some point in their individual careers; ranging from microchips to underwater habitats. The team then decided to narrow the choices down to a single problem. The selection process centred around what problems the team believed they could reasonably solve, and if they could solve them, whether or not the project solutions contained a significant amount of challenging electrical or computer engineering. The problem that was chosen was the wireless transmission of information underwater. It aligned with all of the members' personal interests as of now, and is a complex yet solvable problem, where an innovative solution could be industry-disrupting.
Modern day divers are faced with a communications problem. Current methods of underwater communication are either unreliable (ultrasonic modulation), are physically difficult to operate (data-tether to the ship) , or are high latency (writing slates and sign language). The preliminary results of our problem / societal needs brainstorm were the wireless underwater communication bandwidth problem. A brief design proposal is detailed below, with particular emphasis placed on the fact that the problems and proposal are likely to change with major requirements, minor requirements, goals, and technical advancements.
Design Proposal
Objective and Background: Underwater communication between groups of divers, data collection systems, and audio/video transmissions, have all posed a problem for practical ad-hoc work on an underwater site. The current solution for these communication needs is either a hard-wired tether between devices and the surface or a short-range paired ultrasonic voice-network between dive masks. Both solutions are currently expensive and unreliable. The development of a solution to address underwater wireless transmission problems by increasing data rate and decreasing latency would allow divers to more effectively communicate with each other and the surface operations support, as well as stream audio, video, and sensor data. This would, in effect, free them in certain scenarios from the encumbrance of long and heavy tethering systems.
Methodology: From March 2018 to May 2019, the design and solution prototyping would be completed using the facilities and expertise of the Stevens ECE department, the diving test and training facility DiveSeekers, the Davidson Lab experiment testing tank, the research vessel of the Dive Voyager Expeditions team, and (for stress-testing) the Hudson river. Solution development would initially focus on the viability of optical burst and/or ultrasonic mesh networks in a field-friendly device.
Expected results: The solution is expected to make significant headway into practical wireless "set-and-forget" communications systems for divers, monitoring equipment, and surface support. Secondary effects may include greatly increased dive team productivity, reduced fatigue, greater personnel safety, and reduced error rates.
Costs: This project, based on initial calculations, is expected to cost $3,500 for all prototyping, training, facility, equipment, and testing requirements prior to final display at the Innovation Expo and field use.
Team Roster
Christopher Drew
Jie Dai
Joshua Gross
Scott Maslin
I pledge my honour that I have abided by the Stevens Honor System.
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