Question

Choose, analyze and explain in details; a new engineering project (Mechanical and/or Electrical one), using the steps of Effective Decision Making.

1. The title of your new project?

2. What are the main project Ideas and background?

3. What are the alternative options in the project?

4. What prototype steps you have performed to achieve the best alternative?

5. What are the ideas which you can ADD to improve the solutions in your project?

6. If there are risks in the project, how are you going to deal with?

7. What are the results? What is your conclusion?

Important notes;

- Support your answers with examples, use terminologies from engineering economics.

Computer writing please !!!

Answer 1

1).

The title of the proect was "Eccentra - The Remote Controlled Passenger Car" since it was a Hyundai Accent that we used for the project.

2).

The main idea behind the project was that in a world where driverless cars are becoming more and more mainstrem, there needs to be stepping stone that can bridge the gap of controlling a car from a remote location.

This project aimed to control the car from a radius of 300 meters with remote control.

3).

The alternative options for this project are to develop a full AI bot that can be controlled from an even further location by using mobile and WiFi signals.

4).

The prototype steps we took were

i). Designing the mechnism to actuate the pedals.

ii). Re-iterating the design for the actuation of the pedals

iii). Making a rough mockup of the design to check the viability of the design.

iv). Re-iterating the design based on the mockup

v). Making yet another mockup of this design.

vi). finalizing the design

vii).making the prototype of the final design.

5).

There are many additions that you can do like, control of gear shifts, control of in-vehicular functionality, control of entertainment system of the car, and the most important addition would be a way to detect oncoming pedestrians and obstacles whilst sitting inn the remote location.

6).

The biggest risk is the safety of the passengers of the vehicle, and the safety of the surrounding objects and pedestrians. To get an idea about this and apply brakes when necessary, we futted proximity sensors that would trigger emergency brakes to stop the car. A means could be added to regulate the braking action and not come to a blistering stop every time an obstruction arises.

7).

The results were that the design took about 3 full tries of the whole process before it became a full reality. With every try, Alpha test and Beta tests were conducted after making tweaks in real- time and then the final design came into use. The whole project from inception to conclusion took about 8 months time and a total investment of about $2500.

To keep the whole process ergonomic, we used waste materials from the workshop to build the frame for the mechanism, and the material used was mild steel to maintain strength and yet keep the costs low.