Jose Alegria - Fab Academy
Principles
and Practices
Assignment
wHAT iS THE ASSIGNMENT ABOUT?
The goal of
the assignment is to have a first draft for the final project, describing what
it will do and how it will start solving a necessity.
As we started
coming back from the COVID-19 pandemic social distancing which halted most of
professional interaction (including schools, work environments, social gatherings,
etc.). We found ourselves having to follow certain rules to avoid virus
spreading. Among those rules it was things as having a 5 ft. distance from
everyone at most places (the only exemption was our homes), wearing a mask
everywhere and to keep well ventilated facilities.
About
this last rule, here, in Mexico City, most buildings do not need air
conditioning nor heating, so we rely on windows to keep our facilities well
ventilated. Nevertheless, we have a 6 month long rainy season with daily
showers mostly by the afternoon. So, if we want to ventilate the public areas,
we must keep watching for the rain to start.
2nd Step. What do I want my
project to do
I thought for an automation system
that could close the windows in a building whenever it starts raining, avoiding
having someone running across the building closing all windows, and allowing
you to leave the windows open during the day without having to be there to
close them manually (i. e. at home). So, my project should have two main
components: something able to identify when it is raining and something capable
of closing the windows at an input. Here is a flowchart with how it may work.
The
system will work by getting the rain to flow inside a box. There, it will fall
into a bucket. When the bucket is filled, it will move to let the water flow
and start again. When the bucket moves, a sensor will tell the motor to start
moving.
When
activated by rain, the instruction will be to close the window with a rack and
pinion mechanism.
If
there is no longer rain, or being activated by a button, the system must be
able to open the window to let the mechanism to come back to the original
position.
3rd Step. who will
be using it.
There will be
mainly two different users:
1.
Home users: People who wish to leave opened
their homes windows to reduce heat during the day, avoiding arriving home after
work into a poorly ventilated environment.
2.
Public users: People who have to keep
a well-ventilated environment in their facilities, without having someone to
close all windows whenever rain starts.
Nueval
Checklist
ü
Read the Fab Charter: http://fab.cba.mit.edu/about/charter/
ü
Sketched your final project ideas.
ü
Described what it will do and who
will use it.
2022