Over the work period of March 23 – April 13, the team has made significant progress, and the team is nearly finished with the project. The validation experiment has been completed and the force meter gauge has been used to get data on the loading force, max and average force going up the slope, and max and average force going through obstacles for both the regular hand truck and the team’s prototype device. The validation experiment was held at Rabbs Prairie Road by WA Parish Plant, Needville TX. This place is very similar to the roads at San Juan de Lurigancho District, with it having gravel terrain with a slope of 10.6 percent and the slope is long enough to have the volunteers travel a total of 200 feet per repetition, 7 repetitions total. The figure below shows part of the terrain.
Figure 1: Testing Site for Validation Experiment
As for the force meter gauge, the team was required to make an attachment that will go along with the device and the regular hand truck. This attachment will hold the force meter gauge and the handle of this attachment will pull onto the fishing line that is attached to the force meter gauge. This attachment has been completed and the force data has been collected. The figures below show the finished attachment.
Figure 2: Force Meter Gauge on the Attachment on a Regular Hand Truck with Fishing Lines
Figure 3: Attachment on the Prototype Device
As the project ends, the team has collected several data and seen success with them. The team gathered 12 volunteers to test out the prototype device and the whole validation experiment process went smoothly. The figure below shows the prototype device during the validation experiment.
Figure 4: The Prototype Device during Validation Experiment
Firstly, the heart rate and the total time it took to complete the task has been collected for each volunteer. The requirement was to travel 7 laps of 200 feet with both the device and the data was collected for each one of them. Figure below shows data collected for the regular hand truck.
Figure 5: User Heart Rate Data for Regular Hand Truck
The bottom row of the table shows the average values for all the collected data. Next, the figure below shows the data collected for our prototype device.
Figure 6: User Heart Rate Data for Prototype Device
As shown in the two figures above, the average time has been reduced by about 2.4 minutes for completing the task. Then, by using the heart rates, the total fatigue level has been calculated using the equation below.
Figure 7: Equation for Total Fatigue Level
Once the calculations have been completed, the average fatigue level has been calculated and the % reduction has been calculated. The figure below shows the tabulated data for calculated fatigue results.
Figure 8: Fatigue Results
As shown in the three data tables, the average time has been reduced by 23.28% and the total fatigue level has been reduced by 17.09% when using the team’s prototype device in comparison to the regular hand truck. These results are not necessarily what the team has aimed for, but the table shows that the prototype device is giving better results than the regular hand truck, which the team considers successful.
Also, the team made force readings with the force meter gauge for the regular hand truck and prototype device. The figure below shows the tabulated data for the force readings.
Figure 9: Data of Force Readings
This figure lists all the force obtained from using the force meter gauge. The green highlighted numbers indicate the lower average force shown by the device. As the figure displays, the average force going up the ramp for the prototype device is higher than the standard hand truck, but the rest of the forces are lower than the standard hand trucks. Currently, this force data was only gathered from the University of Houston next to the Engineering buildings. The obtained force data will not be the final data. With the time remaining, the team plans to take the device to the testing site itself and use the force meter gauge there to collect force readings. By doing this, the team can obtain even more accurate data of the force readings and determine the success rate of their project.
Lastly, the team was not able to make significant progress with the poster due to other assignments being prioritized, but they have begun creating the poster. The plan is to create a format online and have an idea of how the poster will look. The team will create the poster online through PowerPoint and have the poster printed. The figure below shows the current draft of the technical poster.
Figure 10: Current Progress of the Poster
The team is currently on track with everything and does not need any additional time to complete a certain task. All lagging tasks from the previous blog have been completed or are nearly complete. Lastly, aside from the poster, the team will continue to work on finishing the last bit of validation plan and the final technical report.
Commentaires