PRE2017 1 Groep3

Members of group 3
Karlijn van Rijen	0956798
Gijs Derks	0940505
Tjacco Koskamp	0905569
Luka Smeets	0934530
Jeroen Hagman	0917201

Introduction

The technology of robotics is an unavoidable rapidly evolving technology which could bring lots of improvements for the modern world as we know it nowadays. The challenge is however to invest in the kind of robotics that will make its investments worthwhile instead of investing in a research that will never be able to pay its investments back. In this report we are going to investigate into a robotics technology that we think is worthwhile looking into. In this chapter it will be explained what the societal issue is that we want to tackle, what we want to achieve for this issue and how we plan on achieving this.

Problem Definition

When you travel by train on a regular basis you might have noticed that when people in a wheelchair need to exit or entry the train it goes rather slow. Before they can get on or off the train the train personnel is needed first to get some sort of ramp to make the disabled people able to board or deboard the train. When someone in a wheelchair is on board or wants to go on board of the train the train might even be delayed because of this. As we know trains in the Netherlands tend to be too late every time and therefore every obstacle that is getting in the way of letting them ride on time, should be taken care of. The wheelchair problem is definetely one of them. Imagine you are in a wheelchair and want to board the train. First you have to look for someone of the staff to ask if they can help you board the train. Someone of the staff will then get the ramp and help you board the train when it has arrived. When you have reached your destination and you want to exit the train again someone of the staff at the trainstation has to get the ramp and help you deboard the train. As you can see it is a lot more difficult for people with a handicap to be able to easily travel by train. Every time they want to travel by train they are dependent of other people. The feeling of constantly being dependent on others is for most people the worst part of living with a handicap. Because of this dependency the threshold for these people to travel by train is much higher. When they stop using the train it might have an impact on their social being which might cause loneliness and even depression. We as group 3 want to improve the service at trainstations for disabled people by using the technology of robotics.

Objective

As already mentioned in the problem definition it is our goal to improve the assistance for disabled people at train stations. In order to achieve this goal we need to specify what is actually meant by improve. To see what the best eventual goal would be the wishes of the users need to be considered. The primary users are of course the disabled people, however the indirect user, which is the train staff, also has their own wishes. To be able to know what the users want their opinion is needed, which will be discussed under the USE chapter. Here our view of the ideal solution will be explained. As explained before the dependency on others is one of the main problems and therefore it would be best if everyone could board the train all by their self without the help of any staff. Another problem was the time it takes to board the train and therefore we want a solution that is as fast as possible but of course also entirely safe to use. Another important part are the manufacturing costs, which of course are preferred to be low. Also the product should be easy to use and not wear off too quickly since reparation costs will be high on a robotic system.

Approach

The approach for the project will be discussed in this section. First of all the users wishes should be the main design criteria. To find out what the wishes of the users are there 2 questionnaires will be made, one for the disabled people and one for the train staff. The results of these questionnaires will be used for a thematic analysis. From the conceptual designs the one that fits the wishes of the users best and is the best solution according to the other design criteria will be chosen. After the best conceptual design is chosen a literature research will be executed about the options of the design. When the literature research is completed a prototype will be designed which will represent the final solution of the project. With the prototype it can be seen what things of the design should be adapted to improve the design.

To make sure that the project will be finished in time milestones have been made which show what we want to finish in every week from now on. The list of milestones can be seen in the planning.

Project planning Gantt chart

Conceptual Designs

In order to get to a right solution for our problemstatement conceptual designs need to be made. Five different conceptual designs where formed and on the basis of the RPC's and the analysis of the questionnaires, the best conceptual design will be chosen. To come to a preliminary design the best conceptual design is adapted to fullfill the requirements and preferences of the users even more. In this section the list of RPC's will be given together with five conceptual designs and at last the preliminary design.

RPC's

Requirements

• Completely safe to use for the disabled person but also completely safe to other passengers on the train.
• Able to use continuously, if not it will cause delay for the train or the person misses the train.
• Easy to use, disabled or elderly people have to be able to operate it.
• Completely autonomous, this means that the disabled person can enter and exit the train all by their self.
• The solution should not cause delay for other people who want to board the train.
• The solution should take care of faster boarding and deboarding than the current approach.
• The solution must be resistible to weather conditions and aging.

Preferences

• Let the person board and deboard as fast as possible.
• A solution that is as cheap as possible for both research costs and manufacturing costs.
• As comfortable as possible to user.

Constraints

• Solution has to fit for every different train, think about the width of the doors and the height of the entrance.
• Solution has to fit on the train station, possibly requires power and therefore needs some powersource.

Design 1

Design 1 involves an autonomous driving vehicle which can automatically drive to a certain location at the platform. The car only drives in a straight line parallel to the railway and therefore one robotic vehicle is needed per platform. The robot has wheels and an extendable shelf that can be attached to the train when the doors are opened. When someone wants to use the robot to board a train one simply walks up to the robot and pushes a button. The robot will be positioned at the end or front part of the platform depending on where the nearest elevator is located. When the train has arrived the robot will move to the door that is nearest to its location. This is either at the rear of the train or at the front (depending on which direction the train travels). The robot will be positioned using sensors in the doors to let it know where the doors are located exactly. When the doors are opened the robot will unfold its ramp and the person can board the training. By the use of a pressure sensor in the shelf the robot knows whether the person has entered the train. After the person has entered the train the robot will lift the shelf up again and then drives back to its original position. When the person inside the train wants to exit the train at a certain station the (not yet existing) extension of the NS app can be used. The app shares the information with the robot and the robot can know in advance that someone wants to exit the train. The robot can move in place when the train arrives (it can start moving when the door sensor is within its reach). When the doors open the shelf will be put in place again and the person can exit the train. When the person has left the shelf and is on the platform the robot will again lift the shelf and go back in its original position. To make sure the robot has enough power there will be a power station at the beginning position of the robot. The robot can attach to the power station and charge his batteries (same way as the lawnmower robot).

Design 2

Design 2 uses a crane to lift wheelchairs and moves them on or off the train. With this design there is no need for a car on the platform. There will be designated doors for people in wheelchairs where the crane positioned on the train. The crane has a lifting cable with four universal clamps which can be locked on the wheels of the wheelchair. The advantage of this concept is that it does not need anything on the platform which can cause obstructions for other persons. Getting off the train is just as easy as getting on. You will not have to worry if whether the crane is on the right platform at the right door and on the right time when you arrive, because the crane moves with you in the train. The disadvantage of this design is that you need to attach the clamps to the wheelchair yourself. It does not work autonomously. If you are incapable of operating it yourself, you still need someone to help you. The second disadvantage is that all the trains need to be adjusted, which takes a lot of time and will probably cost a lot of money.

Design 3

Design 3 is in many ways similar to the current ramp that is being used at NS stations. It involves two ramps that are folded upwards, and when one wants to use the ramp both sides flip down and level with the desirable height. At one side of the ramp this equals the height of the entrance of the train, and on the other side this equals the height of the platform. In this way, a person in a wheelchair can simply drive upward or downward if one wants to enter or respectively leave the train. When the ramp is folded upward, a simple user interface could be installed. The screen would allow interaction between user and platform; the user could enter an ‘order’ after which the robot can perform its duty. The robot is driven by two large wheels, one on each side, which allow for easy rotation within the platform environment. The robot autonomously navigates in this environment. The robot is stationed at one single spot per platform, where it can recharge itself after serving. The ramp has raised edges, to avoid someone falling off of the ramp.

Preliminary design

The Preliminary design is basically a combination of design 1 and ….. The design will be a autonomously driving vehicle that can be placed at each platform. The vehicle has 4 wheels and uses a horizontal plate that can be lifted up and down to be able to reach the right height to enter the train. It will only be able to drive in a straight line parallel to the train rails. It will be placed at one end of the platform which we will call its homing position. At his homing position a power station will be placed. The robot will always come back to the homing position and attach itself to the power station. The robot has to be equipped with different kind of sensor. For example the robot should be able to sense obstacles in its drive path. When the robot senses something is in its way it should stop and give some kind of signal to let it surroundings know that something is blocking the robot. Another design challenge is to find out how the robot can locate a door where the person can enter or exit the train. The first idea for a solution to this is to equip every train with a sensor at the very first and last door of the train these doors will then be used as an entrance for disabled people. An advantage of this solution is that the robot can always choose the door which is nearest to its homing position and therefore less people will walk in its driveway and the time to arrive at the door will be short.

Collaboration process

In this section we will discuss the team process and how the team collaborates. Every week a short update is given on what was done during the week and what was discussed in meetings.

4 September

This day our team was formed. We immediately established each other’s strengths, depending on our background. We discussed some ideas and concluded our main idea would revolve around the train environment. Throughout the week, we communicated who would take on what role in terms of the presentation of 11-9. On Wednesday, part of the group met up again to further refine the main concept. It was then decided we would focus on the boarding of a train by disabled people. Karlijn started working on the presentation, and wrote about the subject, objectives, users and approach. Luka maintained the wiki, while Gijs created an elaborate planning by means of a Gantt chart. Tjacco defined the milestones and deliverables. Throughout the week, a new group member, Jeroen, joined. He started creating the questionnaires we are going to use further in this project. On Sunday, we defined the group roles for the coming few weeks: Luka will maintain the wiki in terms of design process and help with the prototype, Karlijn will do qualitative research on the user requirements by means of the questionnaires and maintain the wiki in terms of collaboration process, Jeroen will do literature research on the state-of-the-art in the field, and Tjacco and Gijs will work on the prototype.

11 September

This day we presented our idea. We received some substantive feedback which we immediately incorporated in the planning: this week we will clearly define the RPC’s, after which we will all create a concept. Moreover, we finish all questionnaires, which enables us to start distributing the questionnaires from Tuesday. On Wednesday we meet again to compare the concepts, and refine our idea. We also received feedback saying we should be clear about the scope of the boarding process we would focus on. Due to that, Gijs started working on a block diagram which would map the entire process from start to finish, to gain clarity. We decided we wanted to focus on every part of the process. Jeroen will in this week start doing literature research, to gain insight in the current situation at the NS. All team members are very involved in the process and all work is divided among the group. Clear deadlines are set and processed in the planning.