Control Engineering

Paul Grayson

Photo: Sealevel Systems <Jennifer.Hall@sealevel.com>

4th OF JULY PICNIC AND WORK SESSION
It is more like play than work here at the AIM Team workshop so it makes sense to combine the picnic with a work session.   Hotdogs, hamburgers, potato salid pop etc. were served while we continued the work on the brakes copper washers and automatic transmission adjustments.  The nut missing off the windshield wiper arm on the drivers side was found as a result of the constant cleaning and organizing program the support staff is doing.  Instaling the windshield wiper nut finishes the windhield wipers safety item on the "street legal" checklist.  To operate the windshield wipers a valve on the dash board controls the amout of air that goes to the wiper air motors.  While not interval timers, the valve does control their speed, not bad for a non-electronic1954 answer to the question of wiper control.

SOUNDS OF THE 4th
During the day, the air over the shop made a ripping sounds as the Blue Angels and other military aircraft cut through the air making their loop coming off the airshow run and turning to go back again.  It is fun to hear all this activity going on.  Other years I have carried my lawn chair down to the bay and baked in the sun while watching the airshow.  The sounds of it going overhead are enough for me to see it again while working on getting the truck ready for the festivities a little later in the week.  We have our parade assignment.  The truck needs to be in position at 0800 for the 1115 start.  At half walking speed, the five mile parade route is going to take two hours.  We have to do a few tests to see if the truck is up to idling for two hours without overheating or having other problems.  I did tighten up the fan belt a bit last night.   As it got dark, the sounds changed from air show to those of large fire works displays, several directions from the shop.  It was a nice summer day here at AIM, light cross breeze with the doors on bays 3 and 6 open to carry the exhaust fumes out while adjusting the engine.

HEATHER 2 LEADS FRIDAY NIGHT CREW
The Friday Night Crew worked on Thursday this week so that they could have the 4th off.  At the shift change meeting they elected Heather 2 as the shift leader.  In spite of having a leader of their choice there were a few melt downs during the evening.  At one point I was grinding off the points of some screws that had come through from the back of a wood sign leaving the faint scent of wood smoke in the air.  One of the kids that came in from having taken a play break outside asked what we had been doing.  Because the kid had taken a break a bit too long, the group of us there in bay 3 told her that we had build a campfire in the shop, toasted marshmallows, made smores and had been singing songs - when in fact they had been sorting bolts looking for a difficult to find size.  It worked, the tardy worker was convinced that all of this could have happened while out. 

I CANT DO THIS
It was so long ago I don't remember all the frustrations of being a kid.  The theme for the evening seemed to be "I can't do this."  Not exactly the kind of thing a company would want to have as a company motto, but is real life and something Heather had to try to deal with as the crew leader.  Eventually they figured it out.  Yes some of the bolts are difficult to reach, but if you find just the right position, you can get a wrench on them and finish tightening them.  Obviously what they had learned up to that point had lead them to believe that you could go through life without having to figure out how to reach bolts that are where they need to be rather than where you would like them to be.  These are valuable lessons for all of us, regardless of age.

WORK ACOMPLISHED
The Friday Night Crew installed the "Pioneer Tools" on the sides of the truck, numbered each of the wheel wells as a means of designating specific wheels on the task list.  Heather 2, although still in high school,  was fully in charge of the somewhat unruly group of 8 and did well.  It was difficult but she managed to do it.  Linda, the adult organizer of the Friday Night Crew, shaperone, and van driver, provides the transportation and kid bribes such as ice cream or pizza to help keep the kids on task.  The group dynamics of this self organizing group is interesting to watch and try to deal with.  We are discovering that people are not as simple to deal with as machines are and that the work is acomplished through the action of groups of people, both geek and non-geek.  I am learning a lot by having this truck and human experiment in my shop.  The kids are discovering that they can, in fact, "do this."  Hard to reach bolts were reached to instal the passenger seats so we could have three people in the cab for the parade and later testing.  The steering wheel nut was a problem they needed to solve.   It is recessed in the steering wheel and we don't have a socket that size.  Josh put it on using a wrench, end on, once he got past the evening's "I can't do this" theme.

PARADE LAUNCH SEQUENCE
There are a lot of things that have to happen at the same time and others that need to be done one before the other.  Since the parade is a fixed date and time, the launch sequence has to be worked out backwards from that point.  If the parade is Saturday the 12th, the question becomes what needs to happen Friday the 11th, Thursday the 10th etc. back to today? ... I'll get back to you on that.

GO ROBOTS !

 

Paul F. Grayson - Chief Engineer
AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL MAGIC, LLC
Racing to build technology that saves lives.
390 4-Mile Rd. S.
Traverse City, MI 49686-8411
(231) 946-0187, (231) 883-4463 Cell
pgrayson@aimagic.org 
AIM: http://aimagic.org 
Robot Club: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/robotcluboftraversecitymi/ 
CE Magazine: http://www.controleng.com/blog/1180000318.html 

 

Industries: Machine Control