• Design and assemble the bodywork
• Build a remote to control the CWAB

Bodywork
There were a few options available to the team for the bodywork. The roll-bars on the vehicle provided a natural support structure for fixing on the panels, along with some additional framework that was secured to the rear of the vehicle. Initial discussions considered the manufacture of the bodywork panels from a variety of materials to make use of the teams’ expertise and capability. These included plastic and metallic sheet materials, 3D printed materials, as well as lightweight composite carbon fibre panels. In the end, for time and cost reasons, it was determined that plastic sheet materials would be the most feasible. These sheets of plastic were cut to shape and then assembled onto the support frame.

Remote
To allow easy use of the C.W.A.B, the team were keen to stay faithful to Ben’s original design by having a very simple remote interface (one button!). They started by determining what the remote needed to do: send a signal to the electronics in the car to carry out the programme(s) stored on-board. It was decided to have two on-board programmes:

1. Lower the hose arm, turn on the pump, turn off the pump, raise the arm
2. Same as programme 1 but also with driving included

As a result, they connected two buttons (one for each program) to an Arduino circuit board that when pushed, would send their corresponding signal via a radio transmitter to a receiver on-board the car. When the car received the signal, it would begin the program. All of this was housed inside a 3D printed casing, with an antenna protruding out the top to boost the range of the signal.

CWAB On The Road
Having finished the bodywork and remote, the CWAB was ready to be unveiled at the South West Leaders Award exhibition held at the University of West England on the 5th July. The GKN Aerospace ProtoTeam gave a presentation at the event about their prototype, explaining the design, manufacture and operation of the C.W.A.B. before inviting Ben to the stage to unveil it for the first time! The team then gave a live demonstration of it in action.

The next event in the calendar was a visit to Ben’s school. The team gave an interactive presentation about GKN Aerospace and the wider industry, before revealing the C.W.A.B to Ben’s classmates and having a show-and-tell session where they could get up close, ask questions, and see it in action!

The final stop on the C.W.A.B’s summer tour was to Farnborough Airshow for the ‘Pioneers of Tomorrow’ STEM event. The prototype was showcased (next to a GKN Aerospace jet engine) alongside several other interactive STEM activities GKN Aerospace had been working on, with visitors coming and going from the GKN Tech Hall all day. This was a real highlight of the project, where all of the teams’ hard work was shown off to members of the public and the industry alike.

Upon finishing the project, the GKN Aerospace team reflected that ‘the project as a whole has been an amazing experience for those involved, inspiring us with the creativity and innovation of Ben and all of the other designs submitted to the competition, and hopefully allowing us to inspire some of the next generation of engineers to pursue careers in STEM’.

The post The final update on the CWAB Prototype first appeared on Primary Engineer.

GKN Aerospace have turned Year 5 Pupil Ben’s Clean Water Access Bot into a reality with their prototype as part of a continued partnership between GKN Aerospace and Primary Engineer. They chose this design because it addresses an important problem – accessibility of water in remote locations.

What has happened since the last update?

Since their initial update, the team worked hard to get the C.W.A.B prototype designed and functional. To begin with, the key features of Ben’s design (along with some of their own ideas) were grouped into ‘must-have’, ‘should-have’ and ‘could-have’. The result was:

Must-have:

• Water pump system (tank, piping, pump)
• Vehicle (body, chassis, motors etc.)
• Electronics (power source, remote control, control circuitry)

Should-have:

• Retractable arm for hose deployment
• Sustainable/renewable power
• Water filter
• Automated driving

Could-have:

• Off-road wheels
• Decals on bodywork
• Sliding doors/windows
• Camera

This gave clear requirements and targets for the prototype in order of priority. They grouped the different features above into ‘sub-systems’ that each member of the team would be responsible for:

• Vehicle – everyone
• Water pump system – Tom
• Circuitry and programming – Remo
• Hose deployment arm – Sam
• Power supply – Matt

Vehicle:

To be able to design all of the sub-systems, the team needed to know what vehicle they would be using to create the C.W.A.B, as it would determine the size of the components, how much they can weigh (which turned out to be a challenge!), and how they will drive/control everything. After quite a bit of research, the team landed on a 6-wheel toy truck with a raising rear bed:

This had several features they liked: 6 wheels for better off-road capability and supporting additional weight, the raising rear bed could be used for the hose deployment, and it came with a remote control that they could modify to control the vehicle as well as the additional systems they wanted to add.

Water Pump System:

The most important function of the C.W.A.B is that it can pump water from a source outside the vehicle into a tank stored on the vehicle. The key components required to do this were some piping for the water to travel through, a pump to pull the water through the pipes, and a tank to hold the water in the vehicle. They started by choosing the tank, which ended up fitting perfectly in the footwell in front of the seats:

Next, they needed a pump that was fast enough to fill the tank in a reasonable time, didn’t weigh too much, didn’t use lots of power and wasn’t too expensive. The pumps they chose were typically used in gardens, or on boats! Once that was sorted, they decided to buy a special hose pipe designed for sucking water up (pulling the water instead of pushing it), and attached it to the pump.

Finally, they thought it was very important that the water being pumped into the tank was cleaned so that it could be used by those who need it. The hose pipe and water pump both have built-in debris filters, so to remove bacteria and viruses they integrated an ‘ultrafilter’ that contained a very fine mesh (netting) to catch the harmful things in the water and stops them flowing into the tank. This was the cheapest and lightest weight option they could find! Here’s one of the initial tests of the system:

Circuitry & Programming:

There are a few things that need to be controlled on the C.W.A.B: the driving of the vehicle, the raising of the rear bed, and the water pump system. By using an Arduino circuit board, they were able to use the vehicle’s remote control to run an automated driving routine (that we can write in advance) by pressing a single button. Once the vehicle reaches its destination, the circuit board tells the rear bed arm to raise which lowers the hose pipe at the back of the vehicle. Finally, it tells the pump to turn on and collect water.

To stop the tank from overfilling, there is a sensor inside it which tells the pump to turn off if the tank is full.

Hose Deployment Arm:

Another challenge that the team had identified was how the C.W.A.B would access the water depending on the source (such as a lake or a well). To tackle this, they used an arm that lowers the hose pipe off the back of the vehicle to ground level when the rear bed is raised. After taking measurements, the arm was designed and 3D printed for testing:

Power Supply:

In order to power all of the electronics on the C.W.A.B. they have two separate batteries on board, one for the vehicle and one for the pump. To supply a sustainable source of power in remote locations, they decided to use a solar panel that could be secured on the top of the vehicle, allowing the pump to be run from a battery charged using the sun!

Once these systems were finished, they assembled all of the individual components onto the vehicle and started testing that they worked together. This is when they invited Ben and his family to visit GKN Aerospace Global Technology Centre and have a tour of our workshop to see where the team make some of our aircraft parts, followed by a demonstration of the C.W.A.B. in action and an explanation of the engineering process so far. They also wanted some feedback from him for improvements and next steps for the project!

Thankfully, Ben was very pleased with the prototype!

The GKN Aerospace prototeam commented to say that “working on Ben’s invention through the Primary Engineer collaboration has been a lot of fun, providing the team with fresh perspectives as well as the opportunity to apply our expertise in a novel and impactful way. Most importantly, it has allowed us to continue to inspire and engage with the next generation of engineers, nurturing young talent and fostering innovation from an early age, something we are committed to at GKN Aerospace.”

The prototype will be officially unveiled on 5th July at University of West England Awards Ceremony & Exhibition for our South West.

The post GKN Aerospace’s C.W.A.B prototype update first appeared on Primary Engineer.

GKN Aerospace are one of our Partners for South West England as part of our annual engineering competition which asks pupils aged 3-19 ‘If you were an engineer what would you do?’ and encourages pupils come up with creative solutions to real-world problems.

GKN Aerospace have selected this design to turn into a prototype over the 2023/2024 academic year which will be unveiled at the next South West England Awards Ceremony and Public Exhibition during the Summer term.

They chose this design because it addresses an important problem – accessibility of water in remote locations.

Beginning the prototype

The GKN Aerospace ProtoTeam is made up of five engineers with a variety of expertise from different projects:

• Dr Ian Gent has a background in chemistry and is working on composites research
• Tom Ramsbottom is developing new composite manufacturing technologies
• Matthew Hunt also works with composites as well as sustainability analysis
• Remo Prior-Calver is involved in sustainability research
• Sam Hargrave is working on machining process development and modelling

With the variety of skill sets in the team such as CAD, part analysis, material science, automation, additive manufacturing, machining, electronics and sustainability analysis, they sat down and used their different perspectives to review the submissions based on several factors:

• Motivation for the prototype (what problem does it solve, who does it benefit, ethical considerations)
• Design complexity (number of parts, size, accuracy & precision requirements)
• Materials required
• Programming complexity
• Budget
• School location

After 3 rounds of down-selection including key stakeholders (such as those responsible for our budget), the team landed on the Clean Water Access Bot (C.W.A.B – a strong acronym is very important!), which performed well in all of the above categories. The prototype addresses an important problem – accessibility of water in remote locations. The team intends to use Ben’s design to create a semi-automated water retrieval system that can pump and store water on-board and transport it to those who need it.

To kick things off the team started with a benchmarking exercise, looking for similar concepts or products that could be used as inspiration. Additionally, Tom, Matt and Sam visited the University of West England (UWE) to have a look at a previous prototype and ask some questions about the process.

The key challenges that stand out for them were:

• The size of the prototype – water capacity would be limited by vehicle size
• Programming the movement of the vehicle
• How the C.W.A.B will load the water into the storage container depending on where it’s in use (a lake would work differently to a well!)
• Water filtration – the water being retrieved in remote locations is unlikely to be clean
• Design for repair – the more complex the design, the harder it is to repair, especially if it is operating in remote/challenging environments

However, the team is excited to now move into the design phase, starting by drawing up some concepts that address these challenges. They plan to focus on their expertise in design and manufacturing to create the water retrieval and storage system, and then potentially retrofit it onto a readily available remote control vehicle. Once the basic functionality is complete, they may consider some extra features such as water filtration.

They have also had a call with Ben and his teacher Megan to talk about the project, listen to his ideas and motivation behind the design, and share some insight on their design concepts. The team look forwards to visiting the school in the near future to update Ben and his class on our progress!

The post GKN Aerospace creating the C.W.A.B first appeared on Primary Engineer.