conceptual design report

Conceptual Design Report For An Educational Kit using renewable energy ( Solar or Wind)
STPS 251 – Section 50



To: Dr. Lisa Lamont and Mr. David Moore

From: Fabulous 5 Team

Team Members:
Ayesha Al Ali
Faten Bin Ishaq
Khawla Al Saeedi
Mahra Al Qamzi
Mona Nabeel

Date of Submission: 18th March 2010

Executive Summary
This report presents a design of an educational kit to be constructed for children between 10 to 12 years old, using either wind or solar energy and to be used in classrooms. Three kit designs were created and then compared according to certain criteria and objectives in order to choose the best design. Those three designs are Design 1 is “The Basket Ball Goal”, design 2 is “The Solar Race Track” and the third design is “The Line Tracing Solar Car”. After creating the three designs we constructed an evaluation matrix to help us giving a score to each conceptual design, based on the main weighted objective that were ranked using a Pairwise Comparison chart (APPENDIX 2). It is concluded that design 2 ““The Basket Ball Goal” is the best design. This design was chosen because it meets most of the objectives since it got the highest score in the evaluation matrix (Table 4).

1.0. Introduction
The project necessitates designing a renewable energy educational kit for children of ages between 10-12 years old. The aim of constructing this design is to educate the children on the importance of using renewable sources of energy instead of polluting their earth with nonrenewable sources. This report follows our understanding of the revised problem stated by the client, toward the identified constrains and the established metrics for objectives.
The main purpose of writing this report is to present three different conceptual designs. Furthermore, it will list the process followed to evaluate each design in order to choose a final design which will be illustrated to the client. After conducting different research regarding the same topic, the team members came up with an enhanced understanding to the subsystems of both wind and solar energies, a summarized sample is illustrated in the appendix. As a result of the previous studies, those conceptual designs are clearly described including the designs rationale, operating process, components, subsystems, materials and dimensions.

2.0. Problem Definition
2.1. Revised client statement
In this project, the Fabulous Five team is required to meet the client’s statement which required us to design a solar or wind energy educational kit to be used in class rooms in both private and government schools for children between 10 and 12 years old. Additionally, this design should not exceed 500 Dirhams. Besides, the design should be portable and light. The height should be from 30 to 60 cm. The Kit should be safe, durable, portable, and economically feasible. It should be built from materials that are locally available and environmentally friendly. In addition the kit should be easily assembled and dissembled by the children themselves.
In order to meet the specifications and constrains that were studied by the team, an objective tree was designed (Appendix 1).

Figure 1. Objective tree

The purpose of this tree is to help the team demonstrate the objectives and achieve them easily. Moreover, a Pairwise comparison chart was created to rank the project objectives according to their importance which will help us in understanding the requirements better. Additionally, this will assist the team in choosing the possible methods that could be used in building the design (Table 1).

Table 1: Pairwise Comparison Chart

3.0. Research Process

The three preliminary designs were sketched after discussing and combining different ideas which were built on the base of each members experience, knowledge and research. The first design scheme is about reaching the goal after proceeding more than one stage, in order to help keep the child entertained for the whole period. The fact of having a different staged kit came from our last year participation in the IEEE activities were one of our engineers build a fun design which consisted of different steps according to [1].
The next design thought came from one of the cartoon series, which the main subject is car racing. Since kids at this age like challenging and enjoying betting their friends, we have managed to come with additional cars working by solar. We enhanced this idea and try to make it more fun by adding many stuff such as a pulley which lifts by rotating the wind turbine as stated in [2].

Finally the last idea came with the assistance of a microcontroller engineer, and then we enhanced this thought by making it more interesting through programming the car using microcontroller program to trace a line that the child draws as [3] agreed.

4.0. Generation and Evaluation of Alternatives
4.1. Design Functions
Functions are related to objectives in the manner that objectives are achieved through functions. This relationship is illustrated in the table below.

Table 2. Shows the functions corresponding to each objective

4.1. Function Specifications
· The kit should not exceed 500 dirham’s
· The kit should not exceed a height of 60 cm
· The design should not be complicated
· The design should be assembled and dissembled

4.2. Morphological Chart
To be able to formulate three different designs a morphological chart was created. In the chart, a number of diverse means were listed, in which they would achieve each function, in turn meeting the objectives of the design. Each section lists functions related to a specific objective, and each function had the means listed next to it. The three different designs were based on the diverse selection between the means of this chart.
Table 3. Functions and Means of the Objectives

5.1. Conceptual Designs
4.1.1. Design 1: The basketball goal
Figure 2. The basket ball goal

Device Components
§ Wind turbine
§ Stick
§ Ball
§ Boat with fan that works with solar energy
§ Seesaw
§ Ball
§ Basket

Device description
The turbine initially started to rotate when the charged solar panel is applied, which causes the stick to swing. When the stick moves, it will hit a stable ball and force it to roll down an inclined path, hitting the boat’s switch. While the boat is moving, the stick which is attached horizontally in front of the boat will hit another ball, causing it to roll and fall into a seesaw. As a result of the force applied from the plunged ball, the ball which is stable on the other side of the seesaw will be projected toward the basket net. The challenge will be to carefully set the game up in order to make the ball reaches its destination.


4.1.2. Design 2: The solar race track
Figure 3. The solar race track
Device Components
§ Fan
§ Stick
§ Ball
§ Pulley
§ Doors
§ Car works with solar energy
§ Race field
§ Remote controls
Device description
This design will work by both solar energy and wind energy. A stick will be fixed in the center point of the wind turbine, and it will be connected to the pulley by a rope. As the pulley starts rotating, the door will be lifted up causing the cars to start racing. These cars will be working by using remote controls in order to guide them in the path. Two cars can compete at a time, and the one reaches first will be honored by a candy.

4.1.3. Design 3: The line tracing solar car
Figure 4. The line tracing solar car

Device Components
§ Solar Cell
§ Car
§ Race Field
§ Line tracing sensor
Device description
This design consists only of a solar car; it moves only when the line tracking sensor attached at the bottom of the car passes over black drawn lines. These black lines will be sketched by the children.

5.0. Evaluation and Decision Making
5.1. Evaluation Matrix
Based on the design objectives the team chose their design using an evaluation matrix and came up with one that was the most efficient and compatible to the client’s specifications. The evaluation matrix was the decision making mechanism for evaluating and prioritizing between the 3 conceptual designs. The designs were weighed according to the mentioned objectives. (See Pairwise Comparison chart in APPENDIX 2). Their weights were taken from the Pairwise Comparison Chart. The score each design received for a given objective is out of 5. The number 5 means that the designs meet all objectives and the value1 means that the conceptual designs does not meet the objectives. For example the following metrics was created for the Educational objective:
Educational
· Clearly demonstrates both energies 5

· Clearly Demonstrates how solar energy works 4

· Clearly Demonstrates how wind energy functions 3

· Doesn’t clearly demonstrates both energies 2

· Doesn’t clearly demonstrates how solar energy works 1

· Doesn’t clearly demonstrates how solar energy works 0

For the other matrices’ see Appendix 3
An evaluation matrix helped our team in analyzing data in a more accurate manner so that we can arrive at the best design. It also helped in identifying the most and the least significant categories. These categories were weighted using the Pairwise comparison chart which was created earlier in the designing process. Each design was given a weight based on how it meets the desired functions.


Table 4: Evaluation matrix of the three conceptual designs

5.2. Selection of the Design Concept
5.2.1. Decision Making Process
The evaluation matrix helped us giving a score to each conceptual design. These scores were obtained by multiplying the weight of each objective by the weight given to each design based on how close it meets the objectives then summed up. The objectives weights were derived from the Pairwise Comparison chart (APPENDIX 2).
Table 4 shows the score that each design received for a given objective. In durability, Design 1 and 3 obtained the highest score which is 4, since they are mainly built of components that will not require a lot of maintenance unlike design 2 which might need replacement of the pulley’s stings every now and then.
Similar to durability, designs 1 and 3 got the highest scores in environmentally friendly objective. This is because the body of design 2 is mainly maid from plastic. However, all three designs works by either solar or wind energy. This makes them environmentally friendly since clean energy is a solution for pollution.
As it is noticed in Table 4, safety is a major objective and has the weight of 8. This is because our targeted audiences are children and we want to ensure that the kit is safe enough for them to play with. Design 2 is the least safe one; this is because it has sharp edges and a pulling up door that might harm children. Design 1 has got a 3 in the weighing because of the rotating stick which could hit a child if he stands close to it when playing. While design 2 got the highest rank in this category since it had no dangerous components.
Since it is a kit, it should be easy to assemble and portable which means that the design should be light in weight with components that are easily repaired by children. Portability was mostly achieved in the third design since it has less components and light materials. Where designs 1 and 2 got less scores because of the many components they have. Similarly, designs 1 and 2 got the least points in the easily to assemble objective that is because they require many components to assemble in a specific manner.
The most efficient design is the first design that is because it combines more than one idea at once. It has both wind and solar energy components. For this reason it is the most educational game among the three designs.

5.2.2. The Chosen Design

As seen in Table 4, design 1 got the highest score which is 146 points, while design 2 received the least score which is 98, and design 3 140 points. As a result, the team decided to eliminate design 3 completely since it got a score that is very far from the other two. The team decided to chose design 1 as the final design and design 2. At this stage, design 1 which was explained earlier will be built and tested. However, some modification could occur either because the team has more to offer or the client has asked for any modification. Additionally, ideas of design 3 “the line tracing solar car” might be used in the modification process.

6.0. Conclusion

This report aims to give an overview about the three conceptual designs of the project. The project is to build an educational kit that works by the renewable source either wind or solar energy. In this report we have mentioned the client requirements, objectives of the projects and constraints of the design. In addition this report includes the three conceptual designs where we have explained each design functions and analyzed the means using morphological charts. Also we described the alternative design and showed the weighted matrix for the alternative design objectives. Our preliminary design has been chosen according to the highest score in the evaluation matrix, which is the one that meets the design objectives required by the client. This design is conceptual design number 1. Finally our next step is to start building the device according to this detailed report, test it to measure its performance and modify it accordingly.

7.0. References
[1] Andrew Rolling ,Ernest Adams , Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams on game design, New Riders, 2003, Vol 621, pp 38.
[2]Pam Sommers , Bringing up baby: the illustrated guide to raising humans, Vol 95 ,Chronicle Books, 1996.
[3] Owen Bishop, Electronics: A First Course, , Vol 223 pages, Newnes, 2006, pp 172.

Appendix

Metrics





Educational
· Clearly demonstrates bothenergies 5
· Clearly Demonstrates how solar energy works 4
· Clearly Demonstrates how wind energy functions 3
· Doesn’t clearly demonstrates both energies 2
· Doesn’t clearly demonstrates how solar energy works 1
· Doesn’t clearly demonstrates how solar energy works 0
Environmentally friendly
· Recyclable materials 5
· No recyclable materials 2
· Rust 1

Portable
· Device can be carried by children’s 5
· Device is easy to move, have wheels 2
· Device need teacher help to move it Device is portable but very heavy 0

Durable
· Components can live for more than 2 years /function well 5
· Components are not easily broken 4
· Components can be broken easily 2
· Components can live for more than 2 years /doesn’t function well 1
· Components cannot live for no more than 6 months 0

Safe
· Protects the user from sharp and moving parts 5
· Doesn’t Protects the user from stable components 4
· Teacher should make sure the kit is not harmful 2
Easy to assemble
· Clearly written instructions , simple language and pictures 5
· Clearly Visualized instructions 4
· Uses screw drivers 3
· Need the help of the teacher to assemble and disassemble 2
· Need the teacher to read and explain the instructions 1
Affordable
· Low cost and easily available materials 5
· High cost and easily available materials 2
· Low cost and not easily available materials 1
· High cost and not easily available materials 1
Efficient
· Meets the children interest 5
· Easy to follow the instruction 4
· It completes the hole kit round2
· Dose not interest the child 1