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.