TSHWANE UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment
Department Of Mechanical Engineering, Mechatronics and Industrial Design
Course: Engineering Design Project IV (EDP400T)
Field of specialization (Mechanical ☒ or Mechatronic ☐)
PROJECT PROPOSAL
THE DESIGN OF A MOBILE CAR WHEEL ALIGNMENT TOOL FOR THE TUT
SOLAR CAR
Student No.:
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Student Name (Title Initials Surname):
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Proposed supervisor1:
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Submission date:
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1.
Contact Details
1.1
1.1.1
1.1.2
STUDENT CONTACT DETAILS
Telephone Number (Cell):
Email Address (NOT TUT4Life address):
1.2
1.2.1
1.2.2
1.2.3
WORK BASED SUPERVISOR CONTACT DETAILS2
Telephone Number (Landline/Cell):
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Email Address:
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Name of Company:
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1
2
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This is only applicable if a staff member or your Company gave you this project. Do not just select your own supervisor.
Record the name and contact details of your work based manager/supervisor if applicable
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2.
2.1
Project Details3
Give the background of and justification for project
(in approximately 80 -100 words, i.e. the “Why”)
In the industry of automotive, a vehicle requires proper measurement and adjustments of
wheel alignment settings in both cases of manufacturing process and also during the life period of a
vehicle. Wheel alignment is proven to be essential and successful to maintain a vehicle life span and avoid
critical incidents. The purpose of adjusting mobile car wheels is to reduce tire wear and ensure that vehicle
travel is straight without pulling to one side. The use of wheel alignment tool is safe, mobile and easier to
operate.
2.2
Give the Problem Statement
(Describe exactly what must be designed, optimized, redesigned etc.; i.e. the What)
To design a mobile car wheel alignment tool for the tut solar car with massive calculation loops
that improves the performance of the tool in whether to partake accurate measurements.
2.3
What do you understand to be Sub-Problems (if any) at this stage?
Four points vehicle wheel clamps design; High pixel camera lens and automatic tracking beam
selection; High quality aluminum durable turn table set design; Steering wheel locker and brake presser
design, Mobility, Accuracy of the current used wheel alignment tool.
2.4
Describe any Preliminary Literature Survey. (What preliminary research has the student done in
an effort to understand the requirements and challenges of the project?)
Referenced four sources; Two books which is named Engineering Design Process Third edition,
International edition by Yousef Haik AND Discover The Perfect Combination Of Technology And Simplicity,
Introducing The V-Series Wheel Alignment System By John Bean. Two remaining are articles from internet
named respectively as follows, AUTOALIGN VH7 3D WHEEL ALIGNER and ADVANCED ALIGNMENT
RUNAWAY SYSTEMS. It is also believed that there is some improvements in need hence it is mentioned in
the article of AUTOALIGN VH7 that the system is not 100% efficient in terms of accuracy of angle
measurements.
2.5
Describe what you understand the scope of the project to be.
(Not introduction, literature review, concepts, design and CAD etc.)
The focus of this thesis is to investigate feasibility of the wheel measurement alignment
principles, only to consider static measurement. Furthermore, the estimation of accuracy of the proposed
tool system is limited only to toe, caster and camber.
2.6
Provide any References (e.g. literature read, meetings with the “owner” of the project, etc.)
They visited Canon Company and asked them for in-depth information for a best camera lense
selection since they do not specialize in lense systems. They also visited the Company of DELL Computers
and asked if they can supply them with latest softwared Computers to run their automatic system.
2.7
Finally, write an Abstract for your proposal (using 100 - 200 words, based on the forgoing
sections; i.e. a structured logical summary of what you have written in Sections 2.1 through 2.6
3
Complete the sections in the order of the paragraph numbering. Do not add any formatting, bullets etc.; just fill in the sections
to describe the project using normal language and text.
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above)
In this thesis, there is a design of a car wheel alignment tool that consists of high quality
devices that checks the wheel characteristics angles against vehicle manufactures specifications. This is a
crucial task in the automotive industry since it prevents irregular tyre wear and affects vehicle handling and
safety. In order to partake the limitations of existing methods, due to the whole measurement system, this
design focuses on the reconstruction of a 3D machine vision based system of a vehicle wheel geometry.
Some of the sources were visited to increase the knowledge to participate in this current project design. As
it is also seen in one of the articles read that there are several methods existing of this similar design,
therefore our high standard design will be a well-equiped modification of an existing problem. Since in this
design we do not specialize in some of the equipment such as lenses, sensors and computers, in this case
we only go through a suitable selection but not the design of those parts.
2.8
Has this project commenced? (Yes/No)
No
2.9
If the project has already commenced (Yes answered in 2.8 above), describe the status /
progress to date fully, with particular respect to the student’s part of the work.
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3.
Agreement between the student and appointed supervisor/s
The following agreement must only be signed by the relevant parties once the scope of the project has
been accepted/approved by the course leader.
We, the undersigned hereby agree to work as student and supervisor/s for the duration of this course. It is
agreed that both parties will be available regularly for consultation and administrative matters pertaining
to this course.
Signature of Student:
_____________________________
Name of TUT Supervisor:
_____________________________
Signature of TUT Supervisor:
_____________________________
Date agreed:
_____________________________
Signature of External Supervisor (only if required):
_____________________________
Date agreed with external supervisor:
_____________________________
Qualification of external supervisor:
_____________________________
IMPORTANT:
1. On initial completion of this document (i.e. excluding Section 3) by the student, the unsigned
document in this format must be e-mailed to the course, i.e. to edp400t@tut.ac.za before the due
date for submission of the project proposal for approval. The document should be saved using the
correct filename and the e-mail should also have the correct corresponding subject line text.
2. Once the project is approved by the course leader, the document hard copy must be signed by all
relevant parties, scanned and returned to edp400t@tut.ac.za in PDF format or faxed to 0867 198
837ahead of the relevant deadline.
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