Grading Scheme :: ECE 445 - Senior Design Laboratory

Grading Scheme

 

The grading scheme for the course, as well as links to specific requirements for each assignment/deliverable and evaluation sheets, are given in the table below. Due dates for each assignment/deliverable can be found on the course Calendar. Please note:

Below is the points breakdown for all assignments/deliverables for the course, sorted chronologically:

Item Team / Individual Score Points Evaluation Sheet**
Initial Post Individual 5  
Lab Notebook Individual 50 PDF
Lab Safety Training Individual Lab Access  
CAD Assignment Individual 10 PDF
Soldering Assignment Individual 10
Request for Approval Team 5  
Weekly TA Meetings      
Project Proposal Team 25 PDF
Team Contract Team 10  
Design Document
Requirements and Verification
Team 40 PDF
Breadboard Demo * Team 20 PDF
Board Review      
Individual Progress Report Individual 25
Mock Demo Individual 5  
Mock Presentation Individual 5  
Final Demo * Team 150 PDF
Final Presentation * Individual 50 PDF
Final Report: Technical Team 30 PDF
Final Report: English/Format Team 20 PDF
Checkout     PDF
Contract Fulfillment Team 20  
Continuing your project   Priceless  

* Grades for these will be the average of the TA and Instructor grades; peer review grades will be used to provide feedback.
** Evaluation Sheets are subject to minor changes.

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