CSE 480 - Senior Design Project EE 491 - Senior Design SYS 491 - Senior Design ME 492 - Senior Mechanical Engineering Design Project Fall 2007

October 14, 2007

Fall 2007 Design Project Description:

Design a device, subject to the following constraints, that will climb a vertical rope (exact type of rope to be determined) up to 7 meters high, move over a pulley to a (roughly) horizontal portion of the same rope, traverse the horizontal portion of the rope until the device is over a dart board placed face-up on the ground, then release one or more darts (up to 3) to strike the dart board for maximum score. The device must climb and traverse the rope, locate the target and release the darts autonomously.

Design Constraints:

• The device must have a positive safety braking system that will not allow the device to fall or slide down the rope in case of system or component failure.
• For designs that consist of separate pieces (for example, a climbing device and a base that is responsible for image processing), all communication between the components must be wireless.

Discussion for the final written reports:

For your final written reports, in addition to your technical discussions, you are to discuss applications of the technology that you are exploring and developing in this project. For your final report, discuss various applications of the technology, with specific emphasis on:

• Safety - what sort of constraints must be accounted for if such technology was used on a large scale?
• Economic factors - How much would it cost to implement such technology and what sort of jobs would it impact (consider improvements to safety as well as displacing jobs)? What sort of impact would this have on the acceptance of such technology?
• Reliability - if this technology was to be used in mass applications, what sort of reliability and failure rates would be acceptable?
• Aesthetics - what sort of guides and guiding devices could be used to make this technology as aesthetically attractive as possible while retaining functionality?
• Potential customers - who would be the consumer for such technology? Consider the consumer of this technology; who would be the consumer? A government agency? Manufacturers? Insurance companies? The public at large?
• Societal impact - what would be the potential benefits to society for the applications that you discuss? What would be the potential drawbacks?

Competition:

On Thursday December 6, 2007 a competition will be held for all of the design groups. The design groups may be asked to demonstrate their devices outside (rain or shine, snow or ice) beginning at 10 am. Standings will be determined by the time to climb the vertical portion of the rope, move to and traverse the horizontal portion, locate the target on the ground and release one or more darts, striking the target. Teams may attempt up to 3 runs; the shortest time will be used to determine the competition standings. Standings will be based on the average score obtained by the darts released, divided by the total elapsed time before the darts are released.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
NOTE: Only questions that have universal application are answered here. Answers to questions that may result in competitive advantages are kept confidential within each design group.

• Exactly what are the rope and pulleys?
  The rope will be Lehigh 1/2" (12.7 mm) braided polypropylene rope with a working limit of 213 lb (95.9 kg). The pulleys are 4" diameter Everlast #50 clothesline pulleys, modified to allow the rope to pass through the molded support. Both have been purchased from local Lowe's retail stores.
• Exactly how is the main pulley supported?
  The main pulley will be supported by a piece of the rope (see above) from a stationary support, which will be either a light pole or tree. There will be at least 24" (600 mm) from the support to the vertical rope and at least the same distance above the pulley. There will be no side-to-side supports.
• According to the graphic above, the non-climbing portion of the rope can be anywhere from 2-6 m high. When will we know what this distance actually will be?
  You will see the complete system for the first time on the day of the competition. You must design your device to handle any configuration of the system that fits into the constraints given.
• Can we fire at the target from the vertical rope, or does our device absolutely have to move along the sloped portion of the rope?
  Traversing the pulley and moving along the sloped rope is a major part of this exercise, therefore the devices will not be allowed to project darts at the target from the vertical rope.
• Suppose we hit the target with a dart and it doesn't stick?
  If the dart hits with enough energy to stay upright for a minimum of two (2) seconds before falling over, it will be considered a fair hit and will be scored.
• Additional constraint:
  For the safety of the onlookers, at least 10 seconds before the dart(s) are released, the device must emit a clearly audible warning signal and a clearly visible red light must go on, and stay lit/aloud until the last dart has been released.
• Dartboard modifications:
  The dartboard will be painted solid red (Krylon "Short Cuts" Red Pepper spray paint, purchased at Michael's) with a 8" solid black (Krylon Semi-Flat Interior/Exterior spray paint, purchased at Michael's) central circle. Scoring will be 100/x, where x = distance from the center of the board in inches. For more than one dart, the score will be determined by the centroid of the dart group.