This week we visited FPL’s site in Venice, Florida where we toured their facilities and what their workflow looks like. We presented our PDR presentation and Report to our liaisons and obtained materials for experimenting and testing our devices with.
Massive thanks to our liaisons and FPL for hosting us at their facilities!
This week, our team finalized our concept and technology choices, preparing to put full effort into prototyping and procurement. Our preliminary design review is scheduled for 10/20, where we will be showing our liaisons the total of our research, prototyping, product architecture, and long-term project plans. To prepare for this, we 3D printed and ran a demo of our Rev 2 physical prototype in the IPPD Lab using the test rig we put together last week. To show any unfinished functionality, we ran testing with a laser pointer to give a gauge for our aiming accuracy on a small scale.
During week 7 of IPPD, our team shifted focus from developing initial concepts to selecting a final concept that is feasible within our project timeline, viable as a long-term solution, and, most importantly, desirable to our stakeholders. With these criteria in mind, we aim to complete feasibility testing of our two measuring systems by early next week and move quickly into prototype development. Our team has also set up a structure in the IPPD lab to begin early testing. Finally, we will devote significant time this weekend to addressing feedback on the first draft of our PDR, which has considerable room for improvement.
This week we completed our initial draft of the PDR presentation and presented to multiple teams and coaches. We found ways to improve our draft and presentation before we present to our liaisons. On Thursday, we met with some of our liaisons in the IPPD lab to get hands on with the previous system FPL was using. We also had our coach meeting where Dr. Jackson gave us feedback on our PDR and presentations.
This week, we finished our literature reviews, created multiple concepts to test, and began the process of constructing small-scale prototypes. To do this, we will be buying an inexpensive LiDAR system and building a 1/50th scale transmission line model to try out our preliminary theories in a physical environment.
This week, we drafted our product design specifications. After reviewing the scope of work, we put together a table of requirements and specifications defining the needs and wants of the device stakeholders. The stakeholders are FPL employees who will be using the device, so we asked some of the sponsors, who are line technicians, to review our requirements and specifications.
This week we designed our logo. It was a creative process that took input from every team member. We built on each other’s ideas and landed on this minimalist design.