CORP 4 OPERATIONAL READINESS REVIEW OATS AUTOMATED CARRIAGE DECEMBER 2 2011 AUBURN UNIVERSITY MECHANICAL ENGINEERING DR BEALE CORP 4 PROJECT MEMBERS BENJAMIN BETHEL GRAYSON DAWSON CODY OWEN KYLE PALMER DANIEL PAULK 1 ABSTRACT The aim of this project is to design test and manufacture an automated moving carriage that transports a receiver around a circular track The design of the carriage will meet or exceed the requirements set forth by the sponsor Neptune Technology Group The carriage and track design must be developed and manufactured according to the System s Engineering process outlined in the MECH 4240 and MECH 4250 Comprehensive Design courses The purpose of this report is to detail the progress made towards the assembly of the final design by showing the steps of a proper design analysis and illustrate the steps taken during assembly Important factors to be considered in this design include weight cost maintenance and reliability and a reduction of radio frequency interference due to physical components The report will detail the subsystems developed for the final concept the functions each subsystem accomplishes and the parts and necessary cost and labor required for each subsystem A manufacturing plan and the steps taken in the manufacturing process will be discussed as well as the tasks required for completion It should be noted that while the report summarizes the conceptual design process i e developing feasible alternatives to the solution the primary goal of this report is to detail the engineering analysis for the chosen design and discuss installation of the design and any modifications made to the design 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract 2 List of Figures 4 List of Tables 4 Introduction 5 Mission Objective 6 Architectural Design Development 8 Development of Feasible Carriage Designs 8 Concept Assessment and Determination of Final Design 9 Product Hierarchy 10 Economic Analysis 15 Requirements 17 Concept of Operations 17 Validate and Verify 20 Interfaces and ICD 21 Mission Environment 22 Technical Budget and Resource Tracking 22 Risk Management 22 Subsystems Design Engineering 22 Project Management 25 Conclusion 26 Appendix 27 3 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 Typical Signal Strength Plot 5 Figure 2 Current Track Design 6 Figure 3 MPCOD 7 Figure 4 Corp 4 Functional Decomposition 8 Figure 5 Battery Operated Wheel Driven Platform 10 Figure 6 Motor and Gearbox 11 Figure 7 Mechanical Drive System 12 Figure 8 Track 12 Figure 9 Chassis with Casters 13 Figure 10 Platform 14 Figure 11 Mast 14 Figure 12 Concept of Operations Detail 17 Figure 13 Overall Motor Controller Schematic 18 Figure 14 Detailed Motor Controller Schematic 19 Figure 15 Midwest Motion Motor Top and Encoder Bottom 23 Figure 16 Gear and Gear Rack 23 Figure 17 Swivel and Rigid Casters 24 Figure 18 Signal Hound Receiver 25 Figure 19 Motor Specifications 28 Figure 20 Encoder Specifications 39 Figure 21 Polulu Motor Controller 30 LIST OF TABLES Table 1 Concept Comparison Chart 9 Table 2 Bill of Materials for Final Design 16 Table 3 Current and Speed Test Results 21 Table 4 Contribution Chart 25 Table 5 Design Schedule 27 4 INTRODUCTION Neptune Technology Group has been a major producer of water meters since 1892 and has over 119 years of experience in providing better quality service to the water utility industry They have been able to produce mobile data collectors such as the MRX920 that has the ability to take 5000 reads per hour along with being wireless and weighing less than 5 pounds They are a well experienced and technologically advanced organization that will continue to be an aggressive competitor in the water utility industry The projects taken on by Neptune Technology Group such as the automated receiver go to show that they are not slowing down anytime soon Neptune currently has an outdoor test setup comprised of a rolling carriage on a 50 foot diameter circular track A test water meter is placed in the center of the track and emits a wireless signal to a test antenna designed to measure the signal strength coming from the water meter An example of a typical signal strength measurement is shown in figure 1 The test antenna is mounted on the moving carriage and is moved to various locations around the track by two technicians who manually collect signal strength data from the receiver This set up is time consuming uncomfortable and inefficient Since measurements are taken every 15 degrees the current setup also has a low resolution and could be made much more accurate if automated Figure 1 Typical Signal Strength Plot 5 The design task at hand is to create an automated carriage that will travel on a track 50 feet in diameter The test antenna and receiver that measures the signal strength emitted by the test water meter will be mounted to the automated carriage which will be remotely controlled from a base station or inside the Neptune Engineering building The receiver will wirelessly send measurements of the signal strength for review by Neptune technicians and engineers There are not currently any designs that will be sufficient to accomplish this task so the goal behind the design will be to create and manufacture this automated carriage from scratch The current track design is shown below in figure 2 Figure 2 Current Track Design In this operational readiness review a brief summary of feasible concepts for the automated carriage is presented as well as the assessment of these concepts and the selection of the final design The development of each required subsystem is discussed as well as the integration of these subsystems and their parts into the final assembly A description of the manufacturing and assembly of parts purchased will also be included MISSION OBJECTIVE The overall purpose of this project is to design evaluate and create an automated test antenna that emits a low radio frequency and is weather resistant The target users for this project are the technicians and the engineers that will be running tests with the automated carriage This new device will be need to be lightweight in order to reduce physical exertion and heavy lifting while transporting it to and from the base station while at the same time providing better removability for the technicians for the purpose of carrying it indoors in case of severe weather The major use for this device will be for transporting a test antenna used to receive a signal produced by a water meter in the middle of the 50 foot diameter circle and house the