Viability of the Proposed Solution

Introduction
To develop or not to develop the product – that is the question. Often, the decision not to
develop a product is financial – based on a thorough analysis, it is determined that the
anticipated income from the product cannot support the anticipated cost of development.
However, if a financial analysis indicates that the sales of a new product (when compared to
the cost of development) could potentially produce an acceptable profit, you must ask,
“Should the product be developed?” But this is not always an easy question to answer.
A designer or engineer has an ethical responsibility to his client, his profession, and to
society. In light of these responsibilities, the designer should consider all potential
consequences, good and bad, resulting from development of a product and then compare the
benefits of product development to potential negative impacts. Do the benefits outweigh the
risks? Is continuing with product development the right thing to do?
The design, manufacture, packaging, distribution, and use of any new product will result in
consequences, both positive and negative. These consequences are far reaching and wide
ranging. For example, will the manufacture and distribution of the product consume
nonrenewable natural resources or produce pollution? How will the development of the
product affect the workers that will help produce, transport, and sell the product? What affect
(intended or not) will the use of the product have on the consumer, the environment, and
society? On the other hand, development of the product may create jobs, use abandoned
facilities or discarded waste materials, and improve the lives of people.
The considerations mentioned above assume that the product is well designed and functions
as intended. However, another important ethical responsibility of the designer is to ensure
that the product is well designed and does not suffer unintended failure. What will happen if
your product does not work as intended or suffers a catastrophic failure? Will the failure
cause harm? It is important that the designer has the knowledge and expertise, or seeks out
people with that knowledge and expertise, to properly design the product in order to minimize
the risks of failure.
In this activity you will consider the consequences of your product design, compare the
positive and negative impacts, and assess the ethical implication of continuing to develop
your product.

Procedure
Work together as a team to complete the following.

1. Revisit the Project Proposal that you created and your design specifications. Consider
the technical expertise and knowledge that is required to properly design your product.
Has your team acquired the math, science, and engineering knowledge necessary to
properly design your product? We have acquired the programming knowledge and the
technical knowledge for both the Raspberry PI and the RC Car. We already know
about the RC cars from previous knowledge ourselves. Have you contacted experts in
order to gain the necessary knowledge or obtain assistance with the parts of the
design that your team is not well equipped to perform? Yes I have talked to
Mr.Genovesi from Pocomoke High, that has experience in software and programming.
It is impossible to include an exhaustive list of math, science, and engineering
principles that you should incorporate into the design of your product because each
product design will require consideration of different concepts. The following list is
intended only to get you thinking about concepts that you may need to investigate
further.
 Loads. How will loads be transferred from the environment to your product, and
how will loads be transferred within your product? The RC Car has built in
shocks that will carry all of the load and stress put on to the body when being
deployed. Also the body being foam it will have to take some damage. Will the
loads be static (unchanging) or dynamic (changing)? The loads will be static
when driving through a building or field, but when being throw/deployed it will be
dynamic. How can you calculate the loads? It comes from how hard the car is
thrown and what surface it hits on. There is a certain equation to use from POE.
Will the components of your product be able to withstand the magnitude of
these loads? Yes, the RC Car was designed with off-road suspension and is
meant be taken into rough environments.
 Materials. Will your choice of materials withstand the test of time? Yes, the
plastic is strong and will hold out for many uses but if it doesn’t all you will need
to do is print another body. The foam will be more of the same it will be cheap
and resilient to damage. Will the density/weight of the materials adversely affect
your design? No it will help our design by reducing weight with taking off the
original plastic covers and replacing them with lighter steadier plastic and foam.
Will mechanical properties of your materials provide sufficient strength,
stiffness, and abrasion resistance? Yes, strength will be there but abrasion
properties will be a problem with the plastic and the foam. Will the material be
able to withstand repetitive loading without premature failure? The product will
be able to deal with hard landings because of its off-road suspension. Will the
material operate well within the range of temperatures to which the product will
be subjected? Yes, but this product won’t be operating in extreme temperatures
because of the area around us. How will the material react to sunlight,
temperature variations, chemicals to which it will be exposed? The material will
change in temperature but not enough to melt the plastic or cause a fire.
 Mechanical Engineering. Does your design require an input of heat or
mechanical power? It requires an input of batteries to run the motors and the
raspberry PI’s. Are there moving parts in your design? Yes, we will use motors
to propel the camera through a building. What simple machines are employed
in the design? Gears, screws, and wheels are all used in mass in our product.
Will all the components of your product interact effectively? Yes, the RC car is
coming in working condition where all parts work Raspberry pi’s do not require
anything else. Will the loads be efficiently transferred from part to part? Do all
the parts move at an ideal speed? All the parts do move at an ideal pace the
RC Car is well designed.
 Energy. Does your product require an input of energy? Yes. In what form is the
energy supplied? With 4-8v 700mah batteries. How is it converted by your
product to produce the desired output? There is no need to convert energy
because of the source is already there.
 Chemical/Bio Engineering. Does your design involve conversion of raw
materials to another form during manufacture or use? Well if we make the RC
car by ourselves, but we don’t so, no we don’t. What chemical or biological
transformations are involved in the process(es)? We have to do no chemical or
biological processes.
  Electrical Engineering. Will your design involve electricity, electronics, control
systems, telecommunications, or computers? Our project will be involving
electric to power the Raspberry PI and the RC car. Electronics would include
the Raspberry PI chips for the camera. We have a RC Car controller and chip to
control the car. The camera will network to a phone to see live video. How will
these systems be integrated into your design? It will fit inside the body of the of
our new design and will have a camera hole in the front.
2. Have you researched laws, codes, and regulations that could potentially impact your
design? Yes, we have researched about the laws of Maryland. It could but, sense we
designed it for police use the law is in a grey area. Basically its fine with a court order
and if there is public danger. Do you feel that your team has met its ethical
responsibility for technical expertise related to the design of your product? Yes, now
using Mr.Genovesi with programming expertise, I feel that the mechanical expertise is
already there and with added knowledge of programming we have everything we
need.If not, perform additional research at this time. Revise your product design as
necessary.
3. Create a graphic to document your product’s anticipated lifecycle. Research the efforts
necessary to take your product from raw materials to the end of its lifecycle (and
potentially be reused or recycled into new products). Detail each phase of the cycle
with information specific to your product. For example, in the Raw Material Extraction
phase, indicate the raw materials that must be obtained in order to create your
product. In the Material Processing phase, detail the processes necessary to convert
the raw materials to usable substances in your product. In the Assembly and
Packaging phase, detail the anticipated method of assembly (one-off, hand
assembled, human assembly line in a large manufacturing facility, fully automated
robotic assembly, etc.) and the anticipated type of packaging that will be
used.(BELOW)