Blog Posts

Technical Performance Measures are up to date & we are about to begin further testing

From the previous semester, we have developed technical performance measures that we believed we the most crucial for the success of our final design. Today, I will be posting the updated table now that allows for one to see how far we have progressed since we first began back in the Fall. The last technical performance measure will get to be further evaluated soon as we begin to focus our attention on testing during the month of March.

Sensors have been calibrated and are now on the bat handle!

We were able to properly calibrate our sensors and test their accuracy by using test weights. We are making progress towards our next prototype by placing the sensors on the bat handle and are able to get various pressure readings based on the way we grip the sensors!

Second Iteration of Hardware Enclosure

Completing the design process involves creating multiple iterations of a design. Taking this advice, we created the second design of our hardware enclosure. It is shaped similar to a bat weight so it is something that the baseball players are familiar with. Our sponsors really liked this design, but we will still be creating slight alterations to fit the dimensions of the hardware that we will be placing in it.

The Assembly Process Begins

This week we have made some great advances towards our next prototype! We finished calibrating the sensors that we plan to use as well as began working on the bluetooth module that will send the data collected back to the PC! In addition to this, the 3D printed enclosure was successful printed and picked up from the IPPD lab. Two members, De’Andre and our newest member Randy, met up to begin working on the electrical circuitry behind the project>

Using CAD to create a 3D printed model

For part of our design, we have decided to print an enclosure that will hold the vast majority of the hardware for this design! After some time, our mechanical engineer Dakota, developed the first iteration of the enclosure in CAD! The enclosure is meant to be screwed onto the bat and the bat will go in the middle of the two sides! Check out some of the initial CAD modeling we have below:

QRB1

We quickly got back to work as the semester began moving as though we never left. By the third week of school, we presented our QRB1 presentation which laid out how we planned to go about the semester. We explained to the other coaches present, the purpose of our project, our end goal, and how we plan to reach that goal. We were able to receive a lot of valuable feedback that we have taken into consideration to guide us up to the next QRB presentation that will occur in February.

A New year, a new start

After finishing the fall semester and ending one of the most challenging years many of us have had to face in a long time, we also had to say good bye to two of our team members who parted from the IPPD Program. Ernestine and Ana were great team members and are truly missed by the team and our coach. We have been missing some updates lately, due to having to reconfigure team roles and complete a new roadmap of how we will still be able to successful finish the project. Luckily, thanks to the hard work from Dr. Latorre and our coach Dr. Hans van Ostrom, we were able to get a new member added to our team! We are now a team of four instead of a team of 5, but are excited to continue to work with the Rays and our newest addition to the team!

System Level Design Review

This week our team wrapped up the semester by presenting our final design to the rest of the students and faculty in IPPD. This semester has been tough as our team met virtually from beginning to the end. From this experience, we learned that communication is key to being successful in designing the grip pressure measurement device.

We received great feedback from our presentation and are ready to hit the ground running in the Spring semester!

GRIPPD System Level Design Review Presentation

System Level Design Review Preparation

This past week the team has worked on the System Level Design Review (SLDR) report and presentation. A rough draft of the report was made, and a presentation for the report was presented to fellow peers and coaches. The peers and coaches were very intrigued, and we have received feedback that we currently implementing and using to improve the report and presentation.

Next week on Tuesday the 8th we present to the Rays, and we are excited to hear their feedback. With the fall semester coming to a close, the team is eager to start building the final product in the coming spring semester.

Preparing for our First Prototype Inspection Day

Prototype Inspection Day is next Tuesday (11/17). We have been preparing for it for 3 weeks. As our project is to design and build a device able to map handgrip pressure. We built a prototype able to demonstrate the technology and components that make mapping of handgrip pressure possible. Our prototype was built using mainly the resources available at the IPPD Lab. The components needed for this prototype include an Arduino, a force sensing resistor, and a piezo sensor. With this prototype, we plan to test the accuracy and repeatability of the pressure measurements given by this technology. Because we are only testing the technology, this prototype will not be wrapped around the bat as our final product will be. The presentation of our prototype will be carried out through Microsoft Teams. We are so excited to show our technology to the judges and be one step closer to our final product!

This week we have been also working on Minor Report 2, which mainly focuses on how our final product will be built and how it will perform in its operational environment.