Project Proposal

Follower Assitant Cart

Me and Vaibhav teamed up for the project for this semester. After lots of brainstorming we ended up deciding to build a follower assistant cart.

NOTE: This is also our second assignment for the semester

What is a Follower Assistant?

The objective is to build a cart/platform that follows the user. The cart will be capable of holding various items for the user. The platform can be modified according to the requirement of the user. Fututre possibilities also include Bluetooth connectivity with cellphones.

 

 

Who will benefit from this?

We aim to make this useful primarily for elderly people, differently-abled, corporate owners, etc. Anyone who wants someone to carry their items along with them can use our product.

Our approach

To successfully design and implement the design, we will be starting concept generation, to decide on the form and functionality of the design. Once complete, we will try and generate the Proof of Concept to reinforce that the design is viable and feasible. After completing the Proof of Concept, we would be exploring the addition/ subtraction of functionality based on what could be beneficial by testing various sensors and actuators on the cart, with the help of Arduino microcontrollers and associated coding.

 

After finalizing the functions, we will be shifting our focus to developing the form. We will be fabricating the components and chassis using 3D printing, CNC milling and/or other fabrication methods.

 

Next, we will head to the assembly of the mechanical and electrical components and proceed with the testing. Finally, after thorough testing we plan to present out design in fron of the class and our jury by the end of this semester.

 

To make things easier to understand, we made a timeline to estimate how we would be proceeding with this design.

 

 

Challenges

The biggest challenges that we foresee would be to complete the project witin the given time. We roughly have about 7 fortnights and due to our lack of experience we aren't sure whether this time is going to be enough or not. However we are quite positive that we'll be able to finish this project.

The availability of the tools and machinesa could be another minor obstacle that might delay our operations.

Since Vaibhav is good with CAD, and I am not, my knowledge needs to be partly up to date with his for a successful completion of the project in time.

Components we would be using

Below is the list of the items/components we'd be using for our project:  

 

1. Navigation sensors- Beacons/ GPS module
2. Microcontroller- Arduino
3. Battery
4. Actuators- Servo/DC Motors
5. Wiring
6. Motor driver
7. Chassis components

Skills required

Below is the list of skills required for our project:  

 

1. CAD Skills
2. Sketching skills
3. Arduino Coding skills
4. Fabrication skills

   

The progress of our project can be viewd in the Final Project section.