Process Update - Work Week of 9/16/15

This week the upper management team finalized the roster and got the sub-teams in order; finally time to get our hands dirty with the project! The Solar team has been busy doing preliminary research and brainstorming concepts for improving power collection for the system. As for myself, I did some basic shopping around to see if there was anything available that would fit the bill for large scale modular mounting system for our solar panels; what I found was that most readily available shims have parallel surfaces on either side. Maybe further research will stumble upon some slanted shims that I've envisioned for this purpose, but maybe as a team we will come up with a better system for mounting panels before then.

For now, Ron Swenson would like us to mount some recently acquired thin film, flexible solar cells on the full scale track at the SSDC. We need to accomplish this by 10/1/15. Ivan detailed our mounting idea in his blog and we will be getting materials and trying to implement it in our weekly meeting at the SSDC this Wednesday.

Modular Solar Panel Mounting Scheme

A rough idea for a mounting scheme on each section of track is as follows:

A set of pre-made, pre-designed "shims" or spacers will be manufactured with a bore through them; this bore will allow a threaded rod that is attached to the panel casing to pass though and secure directly to the track though either a pass-through to a nut or a threaded cavity in the rail. 

There can be designed an array or shims that account for a multitude of angles on both axes, connecting to adjacent railway segments, and different situations that could be encountered when designing around geography for the railway. The END and SIDE VIEWS show adjacent sections meeting or a laterally angled section. 

Process Update - Minutes for 9/9/15

• Meeting with the Total Group: the whole group met with Dr. Furman and Ron to discuss the second blog assignment and the leadership roles such as Government Liaison, Industry Liason, Facilities Manager, etc. 
• Leadership Role Coordination: the group broke off on the Rule of Two Feet to find their place in leadership groups; I personally ended up in a combined Liaison Group that will deal with Industry and Government
• SubGroup Havoc: At this point the group broke up into their research groups and started to designate official leaders; some restructuring occurred with the management system; upper management was determined and from there middle and lower management arose. While the subgroups worked on preparing their blog posts for the remainder of the meeting, management worked on logistics and organization of the group 

Automated Transit Networks in the World Today

Podcar transportation is not a new idea; the SMSSV team is only trying to bring it into the renewable energy era. There are a few ATN systems in place around the world already, but none of them draw from a sustainable power source. 

• The Urban Light Transit (ULTra) system has been in place at Heathrow Airport in London since 2011. These podcars are powered by an array of car batteries, which are charged traditionally from a grid source.
• The Suncheon Bay Personal Rapid Transit system was put in place in 2013; this emission free system is designed to protect the fragile nature of a popular tourist destination from pollution. It is, however, powered from an public electricity grid, and not exclusively with a renewable source.
• The oldest and only Personal Rapid Transit system in the United States is West Virginia University's Morgantown PRT.  This system was put in place in the early 1970s and shuttle students between the two campuses of the university. It does not draw from a renewable source and since it has aged considerably it tends to breakdown and require a lot of maintenance.

Although this list is not exhaustive, it does include the oldest and some of the newest ATNs throughout the world. The SMSSV project aims to exceed the specifications of these systems by being completely sustainable, both in energy consumption and in longevity.

Solar Powered Public Transit in the World Today

Sustainable public transportation is the main goal of the SMSSV; as such focus on other solar powered public transit systems that are already in place is a decent start into researching this segment of the project. 

The fastest way to get solar into public transit would be to modify existing means of public transit to utilize solar energy. Both Europe and Australia have done this already, albeit on a small scale. These Perchtoldsdorf, Austria and Adelaide, Australia have solar busses in operation.

•  In the small Australian town of Adelaide, the 'Tindo' brand bus uses wayside power pickup from solar cells on the central bus station; wayside power pickup is something that the SMSSV happens to be interested in. Hopefully this is a solid proof of concept that the SMSSV team can use for inspiration in some way. 
• The Perchtoldsdorf system is a single hybrid-power bus developed by a Wales university; it serves a link between two campuses in Lower Austria. The 'hybrid' nature of it comes from the fact that it is powered not only by the solar cells on its roof, but also by a set of exchangeable batteries that are charged at an outside facility using its own solar cells. 

Overall there does not seem to be a lot of literature concerning public transit systems that are powered solely by solar energy. Major car manufacturers like Nissan and Toyota, along with Elon Musk's innovative Tesla Motor Company, have started manufacturing and selling solely electric powered vehicles. This is a step in the right direction but a fair portion of electric power still comes from non-renewable sources. In addition, it does not deal with another issue that the SMSSV hopes to solve: road overcrowding. By reducing the total number of vehicles on the road and increasing the efficiency of a public transit system there would be less traffic is largely populated areas and decrease the average traveler's power consumption, both on and off the solar powered ATN. 

Process Update - Minutes for 9/2/15

• Meeting with the total group: each member gave a 'lightning' speech about their research into the SMSSV and ATNs
• Touring the Project: the total group then explored the Superway Design Center with some alumni, mentors and directors of the project; we learned in general what has been accomplished and what we are looking to accomplish in a broad sense
• Breaking into Sub-Groups: at this point each member went to an area to discuss their interests and intentions for a specific aspect of the project. some groups included the 1/12th scale model improvement, full-scale mock up improvement, and the solar systems.
• The Solar Team: joined a group composed of Jaymie Zapata, David Deo Campo, and David Luo. took on the role of team lead. exchanged contact information and availability.
• Talking with mentors: the duration of class was spent talking with Ron Swenson and Prof. Burman regarding our goals for the project. after hours in the Alumni and Mentor Meeting spent time talking with James Mokri, instructor of the solar systems SJSU course, and Frank DeWinter, one of the mentor for the project with a wide breadth of professional experience; both of them are important contacts
• Meeting the Solar Systems course group: Prof. Mokri introduced us to a group of students from his course who were interested in working on the SMSSV; exchanged contact information with them and talked about our own projects

A Short Bio

Augustine Soucy is a Senior in the BSME program at San Jose State University involved in the SMSSV project as the Solar Team Lead. As a local from the South Bay and Santa Cruz area the idea of more efficient and effective public transit piqued interest with him when first discovering the Superway project. He hopes to bring a positive attitude and logical thought process to the project and improve on the many ideas left by previous participants of the project. With a background in HVAC, CAD, and fabrication, branching out into Solar research and development should provide ample challenge and a rewarding experience. He chose the Solar aspect of this project because it is one of the main components that will make the system more efficient and revolutionary, but it seems to have been neglected although it is a linchpin of the project.