Small Scale Controls Team

Today, we received a visit from Gene, a transit control solutions expert, who has designed the control system for the Automated Transit Network (ATN) known as the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) network that we see today, as well as one of the designers of a Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) network known as the Morgantown PRT. In conventional transit networks, such as BART, if a tram must make a stop, the others behind it must wait. Conversely, in PRT networks, such as the Morgantown PRT, if a pod car is requested at a certain station, it will hop onto a diverging rail that circumvented the main rail, allowing the other pod cars behind it to continue along the main track. The station is referred to as an offline station because this pod car is going to make a stop, while the other pod cars continue along the main track. This diverging rail eventually merges back with the main track, so the control system must be efficient to avoid collisions. His team’s job was and is to create...

Today was our first official Superway session following the move out of the old warehouse, our return from Winter Break, and the start of the 2 nd semester of senior project. We had our first SPARTAN-Superway meeting as a whole class; Dr. Furman and Ron debriefed us on the updates since last semester, amenities of the new facility, and the ultimate goal of the project upon the conclusion of this semester. Following our meeting, the class broke off into our three main teams (Full-Scale, Half-Scale, and Small-Scale). Our Small-Scale Team reconvened and set up a general shape and overall layout of the small-scale track, consisting of the cement posts and the rails. We also sifted through most of the boxes throughout the facility to collect and organize all of our equipment. For the Small-Scale Controls Team, we recapped (and slightly readjusted) our plan for the first few weeks of the semester leading up to Presentation #1 on February 27. Ensure induction charger works (Co...