Shell-Shock

So we gave our presentations today....  I was pleased that ours worked, but am more happy to be done!!  Very happy to finish our project that we've been so dilligently working on.  The past five days had many ups and downs, which I will discuss in a bit.  First I wanted to show some pics of our final project.

It took many hours to put everything together, but compared to other groups our process went much smoother.  For part of the night I ended up helping Laura and the algae group for a bit.  I feel like they had the most construction out of all of us.  Construction that couldn't really be done outside of the gallery, but was stuff that had to be put together the night before.  Even just helping that group a little bit, it was interesting to see that no group was immune to conflict. 
To summarize the overall experience there are many topics to discuss.  One huge thing I want to discuss is what I've personally gained from this class.  When coming into the class I had ideas of what I would take away from this class, but after going through it, the lists do not match.  Going into the class I never realized how much of a stigma I had against other fields of study.  I think since we never see what each discipline does, it is harder to appreciate what work and thought goes into each part.  So seeing what has to be done to get the final product brings a new appreciation to the process.  However, I think other disciplines have stigmas against engineers too.  I think there is a stigma that engineers aren't creative and that we like to sit around and program or something.  Also there is the whole, "why isn't this possible" argument between engineers and designers.  All these sort of preceptions were dealt with with our project.  In discussions and in working, how we communicated and dealt with each other was initially limited or guided by these stigmas.  No they weren't all solved or changed, but realizing that they exsist has changed how I work and how I deal with other disciplines.  Or at least how I approach things.  Like for example, in engineering we are given specific parameters and must solve a specific thing.  In A&D, there aren't as specific parameters and what is being done isn't necessarily a specific problem.  So when we started working and we had some parameters and some freedom, we each had different difficulties with the situation.  Some of us were overwhelmed on what to do, others were fixated on having limitations.  Anyways, I'm rambling a bit, so I'll move on.
Another thing I gained from this class is learning how to build things.  This goes back to that things are way different on paper than in real life.  Seeing what a material actually is like definitely puts a new perspective on what a modulus of 3GPa actually means.
Another thing I gained from this class which may not be "interview worthy" is friends.  I know this doesn't have direct value persay, but I consider it a positive thing I gained from this class. 
Commenting on working with a group....the biggest obstacles were what each person wanted from this class.  The lack of focus also was an issue.  I am used to deadlines which helps break things up.  Also, I try to make decisions and then move on, not debate and debate forever and then ultimately get no where.  So there were some difficulties just in style of working. Overall, working in a group was not that bad.  Everyone brought something to the table, which I think made it a better project.  If we individually worked on this project, unlike what Marc said, I don't think this project would have been accomplished at least not as well rounded without all the different people.  There are subtlties that may not be displayed directly in the project but were involved in the process which was a big part of the final embodiments. 
Wow definitely ranting...I'm done. 

Crunch time!

So we have five days.....  Yeah.....  Luckily we aren't in as rough shape as I thought we would be.  We have routed most of everything and we just need to put it all together.  Here are a few pictures that were from routing the parts.  Here is the CNC router cutting through the high density poly-ethylene.  This layer is going to be the middle layer for our rows.  The squares are routed out for the solar cells

Here are a few more pics of the rows being routed.  Our final project has three layers for each row.  The two outside layers are formica and the inner layer is the high density polyethylene.

I think everyone is on schedule for the project.  I would say with the building of our prototype our group has become more segregated.  Before we did stuff together and so everyone knew what was going on.  Now that we are separated it's a lot more difficult to know what's going on and whether or not everything is working.  I believe I was more involved in the actual planning, designing, and testing of our final project, but not in the final making of it.  I've done a lot of soldering and grunt work, but in putting it together I'm pretty useless and I feel bad about that.  I've asked Matt as few times what he needs help with and I usually am told to just worry about the paper, sigh.  I know this is what my role is in this week, is to do that and then do random grunt work things, but I hate feeling out of the loop.  Before I was dictating and knowing what needed to be done, now I'm sort of just a floater.  I don't have a problem with this except when people start being sort of condescending or talk to me like I'm a five year old.  So hopefully I don't get that this week.  Otherwise I don't care what I'm doing as long as we get everything done.  No time for extra information this week...only working on the project.

Many changes, decisions set

Well compared to the previous post, our project has changed quite a bit.  Broken solar cells are no more.  In theory this was a good idea, but in practice we have many things to worry about which limits the feasibility.  Since all the cells are different and the amount of energy we would use is not the same, we have ran out of time to figure this out so are using regular solar cells.  Here are a few sketches of our updated skematics.  For a single cell, the blue is the solar cell.  Ideally, if this is implemented in the future the solar cell would be in the shape of the cell to maximize the surface area.

Here is the schematic for the full scale schematic, it has thinned down a bit from our previous schematic.

We are struggling a bit with purpose....  Jason and I really need purpose.  When I'm trying to write our white papers, not having a purpose is VERY hindering.  It is hard to justify the reason why we are doing this is because it looks interesting...  This is one thing that clearly distinguishes the engineers from the A&D and the Architects.  No matter how much this process has changed our perspective on what an engineer is, we still have not changed in our love for solving problems. 

This week we made a prototype which contains another group's solar cells.  We are going to use this to test and see whether or not our servos can actually turn this thing.  Here is a picture of what our prototype looks like (it is made of a high density polyethyene inside and a formica outside):

This weekend Matt and I tested this prototype with our two types of servos. The servos successfully turned our rows, which is great news!  They even turned them with a bit of ease, so we may not need as powerful servos.  We also had to try and figure out a way to connect these rows to the main boxes at the end.  Matt made up a sketch that we are going to try and follow.  Here it is:

Basically we need to try and find something that will support the other end of the row (the end with no motor) and let it freely rotate.  We went to Home Depot for about 3 hours.  Talked to 5 different employees and the end result..... 3 Hours + 5 Employees = WE DO IT OURSELVES
We looked at long threadless crews, lazy susans, thick pins etc.  Nothing quite right for the size and strength we need.

Random Articles:
The first article I am writing about is the World's First Osmotic Power Plant.  This reminds me of one of my friend's senior design project where they were designing a similar thing.  This plant uses the chemical potential between salt and water to generate electricity.  http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2009-11/worlds-first-osmotic-power-plant-goes-live-norway  Unfortunately, this can only power a coffee pot....  I don't know if I should show this to my friend, may not go over well  haha.
Here is a picture of the plant:

Holiday time, so I'm going a bit lighter.  Happy (Late) Thanksgiving

Making Stuff!!!

We got our damaged and mangeled solar cells this week!!!  Here they are....

So although these solar cells are broken, they still give us a large enough voltage that if we put them in series we will be able to charge our battery to power our microprocessors and servos. 

Also, since we are using low current things we don't really have to worry about that with our solar cells.

So we tested about 10 or so of them and we got 0.25-0.35V per cell in just dispersed light sitting in the library.  We also received broken solar cells from the solar car team.  They have generously given us about 30 different broken cells.  These solar cells gave us 1-1.2V in dispersed light. 

Later in the week we started soldering some of the cells in series to make a few units.  Here is our schematic of a single unit and then what it will look like as a whole unit. 

Crunch Time

Yes we have 31 days....to an outsider this may seem like lots of time....IT IS NOT!!  Definitely crunch time.  I really, really wish we would have settled the design awhile ago, but oh well.

Now we are definitely making a solar array that is comprised of all damaged solar cells that is going to tilt to remove snow from its surface.  We don't have the shape of the solar array determined yet.  We are trying to make an interesting shape that will also not cause any collisions.  Below is our basic idea.  There will be a "box" that has solar cells on one side.  This box will be attached to a dowel that rotates to remove snow or turn away from moisture etc.  We were inspired by the Mimosa plant and how it "shys" away from any sort of stimuli.  Our motion will not be as intricate as this plant, but will work off of the same idea.







Here are other solar concepts inspired from nature.  I highlighted a few.  The entire concepts can be found here.
http://www.treehugger.com/galleries/2009/09/13-great-solar-concepts-inspired-by-plants.php?page=1

The first is the Power Flower by the Art Energy Design. 

This flower is both solar powered as well as wind powered.  Art Energy Designs says one of the things they hope to do is "Inspire the creation of sustainable eco-art projects".  Below is a diagram of what is in the Power Flower.

Here is another one of the solar concepts that mimics ivy leaves.  Their idea is too attach these solar cells on walls (like ivy).  If these cells get damaged or broken it would be "like shedding leaves".
http://www.treehugger.com/galleries/2009/09/13-great-solar-concepts-inspired-by-plants.php?page=7
Here is the ivy on a building wall.

The shiny green is the solar ivy. 

Here is a close up of the ivy wall. 













This next solar concept replaces the normal houseplant with a solar array that looks like a houseplant but really can be used to charge your devices.  It uses flexible solar cells that look like plant leaves, it's pretty interesting.  Here is the link http://www.treehugger.com/galleries/2009/09/13-great-solar-concepts-inspired-by-plants.php?page=9

This is a random thing I found.  This is remote-controlled cyborg beetles that are solar powered.  They are being used to study more about beetles and also the military may be using them as well.  Here is a video of the flying beetle. 
http://brightcove.newscientist.com/services/player/bcpid2227271001?bctid=42939806001

Next I found a VERY freaky green idea.  Elisabeth Buecher designed an inflatable shower curtain that becomes spikes when you have run the shower for too long.  She also has one that slowly traps you....FREAAAAKKKYYYY.......

Here is the link: http://www.treehugger.com/galleries/2009/10/13-creepy-strange-and-gross-green-inventions.php?page=5

Viable Option

We have finally come up with an idea.  We took the mindset of just making something that looked interesting and figuring out the purpose later.  This is an EXTREMELY difficult mindset to have (at least for me it is).  Having no reason besides making something look cool is difficult to stay excited about.......HOWEVER I am comfortable with our surface, and am happy to have at least some sort of viable direction.

The budget we had to figure out really puts things into prespective.  When we started calculating the budget our design had to be modified quite a bit.  It is amazing how quickly money can get eaten up.  I was surprised as to how much the budget turned into being a constraint.  Since we are dealing with solar cells and solar energy, the expense side of our project is a huge factor on what can and cannot be done.  After hearing some of the other groups presentations and seeing that their budget was not actually calculated out...I think they're going to have to do some redesign just to stay within budget. 

We are working on cutting our costs even more by not using as many servos, and connecting the motion of various servos.  I need to add some pictures...but don't have a camera at the moment.....so I'll be adding more/better info....

Still Lost....

Yeap still have nothing......Spent another four hours discussing ideas....still don't have a solid one (so no proof of our effort).....  I talked to my group about just sitting down and making stuff, got some stuff from the ScrapBox....no one wanted to....  All we need is to come up with an idea that has a purpose and we will be flying.  We still can't find a purpose.  Lots of unanswered questions.  Why do we want the surface to move?  How is that going to benefit a solar tracker?  Hopefully we get things together...but no one seems to be freaked out about not having an idea.  All I can think about it how we have 2 days to pull something together.....

Schematics of Solar Trackers from Other people

Since there are lots of solar tracker designs.  I decided to make a post containing a bunch of different designs, so that maybe my team or another team can use them as inspiration for our own design.

1. HinesLab Helio Sun Tracker
http://www.hineslab.com/SolarTracker.html

Above is the original sketch of this man's idea.  Here are some more schematics.

This drawing would use Fresnel lens to concentrate light

This one uses a Parabolic reflector.

This is his mechanism for if it were floating in water.

I thought these were all interesting designs because when I was driving home the other day I was watching the long grass sway about and I thought maybe that would be an interesting solar tracker idea...apparently so did someone else haha.

2. Traxle - A Czech Republic Company who uses varying positions of mirrors in a triangular pattern.

http://www.solar-trackers.com/photogallery.asp

3. ZomeWorkers - SunBlender

http://zomeworks.com/files/sunbenderTM/Sunbender%20Brochure%202009.pdf

Adjusts for hot and cool season.

Hot Season Sunbender that cools

SunBender that is for cool season.

4. SolFocus - Uses their design to focus the light

http://www.solfocus.com/es/

Close up of the focusing units

Larger scale view of trackers

5. MecaSolar - "Flexible" Solar

http://mecasolar.com/_bin/caracteristicas_fijos.php

Direcly mounts into the ground and based upon the depth of mounting can create a flexible appearance.

A few common characteristics:

- all have generally large surface area

- most are flat and dark

- most are fixed and have some sort of rotation/swivel ability

- most are expensive

- work only in direct sunlight areas

- use mirrors or lens to enhance amount absorbed my solar cell

- most are not things people want in their yards because they are a bit clunky...

My questions are:

- How can a solar tracker be made with less clunk, but same surface area (like the rod trackers example #1)

- For cloudly days, besides an expensive umbrella, is there anything else these might be able to do?

- Can the tracking mechanism be replaced with something that does it naturally, like plant motion

- Can these be made more attractive for parks, or homes?

- Can non-flat surfaces be used to make solar trackers, perhaps increasing it's surface area?

- What can these things do at night?

New Psychoanalysis...

This class is experimental on many different levels.  I feel like the psychological aspect of the class is enormous.  Handling all the various situations has been a mental trial.  A few of us talked to Max (Professor Shtein) today and we had an interesting discussion regarding this class and it spurred some thoughts.  One thing I did want to say first was that I think part of our "paralysis" with this final project has been overanalysis, but also our desire to be perfect.  I know, personally, I'm hindered by my fear of failure.  I think this is what happened with our first presentation.  We moved sideways not forwards because we wanted the perfect idea.  It is a VERY new way of thinking to just start making something and then edit as we go.  At least here, our process has always been think think think think.  Also, our process always has been about the bigger picture.  It's hard to think not in the big picture, but tackle smaller things.  How do you measure success?  How do you know what you're doing is enough?  We'll see....

Christopher Columbus with no wind for its sails....

After reading the announcement posted about our project, the excitment and interest of our group scattered faster than 5th graders on the last day of school before summer....  Finding this out now means we have wasted precious days, four meetings, and "hundreds of hours".  We met today and the stimulation was gone.  We were all in shell-shock.  No one knows what we can and can't do now.  And no one knows even what to do.  I'm completely lost because this is my senior design project.  This is what I'm supposed to be showing companies when I'm trying to get a job.  However, what am I going to be showing these people?  Obviously I can talk a lot about the experience, which has been very valuable, but if the team does not create anything tangible...then all I have is talk, with no support.  What I mean by tangible is something that demonstrates teamwork, engineering, and purpose.  I feel like we are expected to make something that has no impact.  More of something that "looks cool".  I don't want to just make something that looks cool.  I don't want to make a "trophy wife" project.  I need substance.  No matter what we do for our surface, I don't see what it is going to improve upon.  I don't mind making a heliotropic surface, I have ideas about it, but not knowing it till late in the game, is extremely frustrating.  This is the one time in my undergraduate career in which I get to make something, and now no one in my group even wants to do anything because everyone's annoyed with the news.  The wind from our sails has been sucked away.

On a lighter note, this is an example of a heliotropic surface I would like to do. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Fyre3lAt64&feature=player_embedded
Another longer, cooler video.  If you go to like 3:15ish you will see fire stimulating it and it's really cool.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLTcVNyOhUc&feature=player_embedded
It's the Mimosa púdica. 

Babel

My group for smartsurfaces met today to discuss the various inspirations we had unearthed over the weekend.  Our ideas ranged from algae, to teaching solar, to water designs.  We were a little all over the place.  The ideas were there, but piecing them together is going to be difficult.  I've had difficulty with this idea phase because I am, unfortunately, so problem driven. I want to make a smartsurface to improve the quality of life. When I don't see the why, or how, I just have a hard time understanding what's the point? I feel like once we get started on an idea things will have more forward motion, but choosing an idea is by far the hardest part.  I am really excited about my team and I know once we get everyone inspired, something great will come of this.

We all have extremely high expectations, and we all have different things we think are most important to creating a successful smart surface.  No one wants to back down from their idea, because we all have personal attachments to our ideas.  And not only do we have personal attachments, we also don't understand why everyone else doesn't see why this is the most important aspect of our project.  This is why I've titled this blog entry Babel, because that's exactly what it feels like at times.  We're each speaking our own language, passionately, and intensely, but no one understands a word of what we're saying.

Also, as a side note I thought I would mention a cool thing that BASF is doing.  They are making microcapsules that contain Vitamin A to help children and other under-privleged people who need this vitamin but may not be getting it from their diet.  http://www.basf.com/group/corporate/en/news-and-media-relations/science-around-us/food-fortification/story

Apparently, Vitamin A is not produced by the body naturally, and hence it must be consumed.  However, Vitamin A rich foods are usually too expensive so foods less rich in this vitamin must be resorted to.  Vitamin A is important because it prevents blindness and helps your immune system to fight diseases such as the measles.  So BASF is making these capsules to be incorporated into the less nutricious, cheap foods that are commonly eaten.  I found this article interesting not because this is a "fresh idea" but because it was a very simple solution that can do great things.

"New" Team....sort of and Solar Decathalon

So I got my final teams yesterday for SmartSurfaces.  We actually discovered that our team is the exact same as a few weeks ago except for one person, so it's the Fabric Team + Johanna.  I really enjoy my team and I'm excited for our project.  We had two criteria we came up with.  We were focused on actually have a surface be interactive with humans, and not strictly by sight but by possibly other senses.  Our other criteria was using our smartsurface to better the quality of human life, either through water purification or improving soil quality etc..  So instead of having a cool light pattern appear, we would have something with more of a positive human impact. 

As for interesting stuff going on..... 

The Solar Decathlon Held by the Department of Energy has finished http://ecogeek.org/.  Above is the winning team's house (Team Germany) http://www.solardecathlon.org/.  The Solar decathlon is where teams make houses that are 100% powered by renewable energy.  Some of the team's houses also produce more electricity than they use.  There are some very cool contraptions and things used to make the house functional.  The diferent things teams used for insulation, rain collection, lighting, heating/cooling etc. are all very unique.  Since it is a decathalon there a bunch of different events that each house is judged on:
Architecture, Market Viability, Engineering, Lighting Design, Communications, Comfort Zone, Hot Water, Appliances, Home Entertainment, Net Metering

Here are more pictures

Here is the passive-heating water wall of University of Arizona.  It is made of recyled water bottles.

This is a close up of the passive-heating water-wall of University of Arizona's solar-powered house.






Here is University of Wisconsin's RainWater Collector.








 
Here is the automated external shading and krypton-filled glass used by Team Ontario/BC's solar-powered house to insulate their house.





 



Energy efficient lighting used by Virginia Tech's House.

The Night Before.....

The past few weeks we have been learning various things so that we have some tools to help us when we make our final project.  Tomorrow we get our final teams to start our big project.  I'm a little worried and a little anxious.  I'm excited to finally get our final teams.  However, I am also nervous because the dynamic of the group is very important and I hope we have good dynamics (or can learn to have good dynamics...if that's actually possible).  I feel as though I'm a pretty easy person to get along with, so long as the person does work.  If a person does not do work, that's when I get frustrated. 

Covalent Energy - Light Concentrating Solar Cells

Anyways....here is something cool I found.  Jonathan Mapel has these plastic sheets with organic dyes (in different colors) that direct light along the sheet and illuminates the edges.  He suggests then putting the solar cells on the edges, where the light has been concentrated.  He says hes wants to use dyes that are good at absorbing white light and then bad at absorbing whatever color (wavelength) that the sheet is. 

Here is a video of him explaining this in more detail.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid37875717001?bctid=1653764292

I found this video really interesting because he is reducing the amount of solar cell material that is needed. So instead of needing to cover the entire panel with solar cells, only the edges would have solar cells.  I never really had looked at "directing" the sunlight, instead of trying to have the largest surface area.  It's a very interesting idea. 

Here is his company's website, Covalent Solar http://www.covalentsolar.com/

Quote of the week:

“Yes, halfway through this project we’ll discover the impossible, but we know how to build through the impossible. Impossible is when we do our best work.”
-Unknown from website http://www.randsinrepose.com/archives/2009/03/23/the_makers_of_things.html

What's my Role again??

After going through the four rotations of groups for the SmartSurfaces class, I feel like I can finally give a summary of my experiences of being in the groups. I didn't want to discuss group dynamics until now because I had a hard time accurately "rating" people. I understand why we rate our groups each week, but it is so hard to rate people when you have nothing to compare it to. Looking back, I would have evaluated certain individuals entirely different. Also, there were weeks were certain individuals had more to bring to the table then others. So when I evaluate a teammate how can I say whether or not this person worked well as a teammate or kept us motivated? It's much harder to evaluate how well you worked with someone if you didn't actually do much with them. I think a better way to evaluate the group dynamics would be to ask questions that have to have a written response. Something like, 'What was a difficulty you encountered', 'How well do you think your team worked', 'What worked in your team', etc. etc.

Anyways, back to my experiences with the rotations. Sometimes I felt like myself and the other engineer in the group had less to bring to the table because all of our problems were about making something work. Instead of thinking about maximizing the efficiency, or calculating forces, or whatever, we just tried stuff until it worked. And I'm not saying this is a bad thing, I'm just saying being an engineer didn't add anything in particular to the group. Yes we have certain tendencies and we can program, but in general, we can't make the contraption with a laser cutter, or in the wood shop. Since all of the problems have been more towards the construction of things, I haven't felt like an important part. Yes we all brainstorm together, and yes we're all creatively collaborating, but when it comes down to it I don't know what we bring at this stage of the class. I know that for our final projects we will have more of an impact because we will want to maximize efficiencies, and research, and experiment etc.. However, at this time I feel like our skills are not being used. What I am doing now in the group is stuff I could have done without an engineering education.

So this week for our 4th and final mini-project before our big project, we were given far less restraints than normal. Instead of having a concrete problem to solve, we were given bare requirements, and get to decide the other 97%.

I am very intrigued about this scenario, because my group has decided to sort of work in reverse. Our ideas is in layers. The first layer is the mechanism and the next layer(s) is going to be the purpose/why. Since we have an idea for a controlled mechanism we are going to finish the first layer and then try a series of different purposes/bottom layers. I don't think I have ever worked in reverse. It's always been: problem, solution, review. Our design process is more of the 'egg came before the chicken' thinking. We have ideas for the why, but we're trying to not decide that just yet. I'm excited to have sort of a modular flexibility, which, hopefully will work out in the end.

Anyways, here are a few things that have I found interesting.

First off is a alliance called enocean (http://www.enocean.com/en/enocean_concept/). They are an alliance for the "dedication to the advancement of self-powered interoperable wireless building controls". Here is their white paper.

http://www.enocean.com/fileadmin/redaktion/pdf/white_paper/wp_energyforfree_en.pdf

This paper discusses how they want to control the temperature, lighting, appliances etc. with wireless sensors that are wireless and have no battery. This alliance was of particular interest for me because I really like the idea of using everyday gradients, or motions to generate enough power to monitor other things that help minimize the amount of energy used. These self-powered sensors could help monitor appliance use, or prevent lights from being left on. I don't know, the idea just sort of excites me. I know that these devices won't be replacing any electricity source persay, but cutting back on unncessary energy use is just as important.

I take a "boot camp" class at the gym. While this class is going on, the heat in the room goes up by quite a bit. It would be interesting to see if the heat could be harnessed for the little sensors described above.

Another article I found interesting was about the 'Positive Energy Elithis Tower' in france (http://www.jetsongreen.com/2009/10/positive-energy-elithis-tower-dijon.html).
This building gives a live feed of the energy and emission used in the building. I thought it was an interesting approach, because they add some sort of user awareness. Knowing how much energy or emissions are being used/given off may not detain people from using those appliances, but knowing numbers and direct relations does at least make people conscious of how much energy they are using. Most people I know have no idea how much energy they use in a day. Once again, I'm not saying this awareness is going to change habits, but it makes it easier to keep track of changes in usage.

Ok my third and final topic has to do with IBM's Battery 500 Project. http://www.smartertechnology.com/c/a/Technology-For-Change/Battery-500-Project-Charged-Up-over-AllElectric-Cars/. IBM's goal is to make an electric battery that can run a car on a single charge for 500 miles vs the 100 miles it can currently do. So last year IBM had an internal challenge to make this improved battery. There was a winner, and now a bunch of engineers and scientists from IBM are going to test this design even more. The ultimate goal of this 2 year project is to see if this type of battery technology is even feasible. Here is the podcast about it http://asmarterplanet.com/blog/2009/08/next-generation-electric-energy-storage.html

I found this of particular interest for a couple of different reasons. First, I liked how it was at first an internal contest (so lot's of different mind's views). And secondly, I like hearing that people are consciously trying to improve battery technology and not just wait till someone else does it. I love the go-get'em attitude.