Remote weather station

Project Plan Project 7

Author: Nicolaas Uys

Study program: Mechatronics
Version: 1
Date & place: April 7th 2021, Venlo
Contents
1. Introduction....................................................................................................................................2
2. Description and end results............................................................................................................2
3. Activities.........................................................................................................................................2
4. Boundaries.....................................................................................................................................2
5. Organisation...................................................................................................................................2
6. Planning..........................................................................................................................................2

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1. Introduction
As technology progresses over time and more and more digital solutions are available to increase
performance and efficiency of companies a trend is set for all sectors to be successful. Also, as the
population of the planet increases there is increased pressure on the agricultural sector to comply
with these trends.

One of the most important aspects in the agricultural sector is weather patterns and many farmers
are influenced by these. To further improve management possibilities in the sector a need is
produced for reliable data sources for accurate pattern recognition and yearly weather trends. With
such data farmers could spend their time more effective and efficiently to produce the products that
the world needs to sustain itself.

2. Description and end results

In this project the focus will be on developing a simple weather station unit that can collect a few
select weather data units. The weather station should be self-sufficient and be able to be deployed
in rural regions of the developing world. Specifically, the farmlands in and around Southern Africa.
The collected data should be made available to the farmers in the locale of a deployed weather
station.

The project will be performed to achieve a result consistent with the requirements as set below.

Table 2.1 Requirements

Requirements Hard/Variable
Device must measure wind speed Hard
Device must measure wind direction Hard
Device must measure temperature Hard
Device must be self-sustaining Hard
Data stored downable without direct Hard
interfacing
Device must be cost effective Variable
Device must be deployable outside Hard
Device should be as small as possible Variable

3. Activities
During this project a 5 phased approach will be used. These 5 phases are as following Startup Phase
(Planning phase) , Research and Concept Refinement Phase, Design and Concept Realization phase
and finally a Testing phase to Round of the project. Each phase in turn focuses on different aspects
of the project and realise different results.

The Startup phase or planning phase is where all necessary planning documentation are created and
roles and duties of each project member are described. In this phase the goals and project
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scheduling are defined and documented for future use. A project plan and project schedule will be
made in this phase. An initial list of required materials will also be included in the project plan to
speed up the project process.

The second phase or Research and Concept refinement phase is phase of project where unfamiliar
concepts and ideas as set out in the goals of the project plan are research via any methods available
to the project members. Documentation and Materials required for the rest of project also gathered
during this stage. Initial concepts will also be created and decided upon in this phase. Concept device
and concept creation process documentation as well as detailed list of Materials required. The
ordering of materials as required also takes place in this phase.

The next phase the design and concept realization phase will focus on constructing and refining the
design of the chosen concept in the previous phase. Using Materials and concept ideas from
previous phase a first concept device will be constructed.

Lastly the Testing phase will test and the constructed device to see if it meets the goals as set out in
the Startup phase. If time allows adjustments to the design will be made to better fit the goals of
project. The project will be concluded with a design dossier of the constructed device as well as a
presentation showing work done during the project. A film presenting the working of device along
with a banner showing key features will be made in this last phase as well. Constructed device will
either be showcased via film or live during the presentation.

4. Boundaries
The project will fall in the following boundaries. The project will be performed by one student
supervised by a single coordinator. The student will have 5 full weeks to complete the project.
Boundaries have been placed on project width and length, and cost associated with development
should be logged and kept within a discussed budget.

Each week the student will have a meeting with the coordinator to discuss pitfalls and progress.
During the project the work done by the student will be logged and kept in a logbook. During this
project focus will only be on the data recording device (weather station) all other parts are outside
of the scope of this project and deemed extra work. The hardware and software associated with the
weather station will be developed and tested by the student. A Third party has interest in the
developed device and the relevant documentation will be shared with them once the project
reaches it’s time limit.

If the requirements are met before the end date of the project further improvements on the system
can be added. These are considered extras and not part of the original project planning. Any such
features added should be mentioned in design document and the associated benefit of added
feature should be explained in the design document.

The project will have a budget of 500 Euro. The cost will only be calculated on the hardware
requirements to build a protype. All other development cost is negated. Although a maximum
budget is set one of the requirements in the project aims for the project to be as cost effective as
possible and a device which can perform the tasks asked at lower cost should ranked higher in
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consideration. Because this in not a new type of system developed device should also be compared
to currently available systems.

5. Organisation
The project will consist of 2 people, contact information for these can be seen in table 5.1 below.
Nicolaas the student will be the primary work force and do all development and research in this
project. Daniel will be the overseer and provide guidance and input on progress every week of this
project.

All project documents will be stored on Helix core servers for coordinator and teachers to assess.
The student should have access to a working laptop and internet connection to be able to perform
most of the duties in this project. Further the student should have access to a workshop to be able
to construct and tests hardware in this project. All tests should be documented and described and
their outcomes mentioned in the associated chapter of the design document.

Table 5.1 Contact details

Name Position E-mail Telephone
Nicolaas Uys Project [email protected] (+31)062 1955 607
Member
Daniel Rateike Project [email protected] (+31)088 5073 002
Coordinator

6. Planning
A planning schedule will be setup made in project libre and added as part of project planning setup.
As part of this chapter risks will also be discussed in the below table.

Risk Matrix
According to the risk matrix Table 1, the risk levels have been identified. Red zone is the
unacceptable area, yellow zone is tolerant and green zone is negligible.
Failure probability

Rarely Unlikely Possible Probably Certain

Operational Consequences Weight 1 2 3 4 5

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 Critical impact. Possible
Possible Consequences

contract termination. 7 10 15 20 25
Catastrophic 5
Significant impact.
Serious disruption of
the normal provision of
4 8 12 16 20
services. Severe / High 4
Moderate impact.
Moderate disruption of Seriously / 3 6 9 12 15
normal services... Moderately 3
Local impact.
Disruption of normal 2 4 6 8 10
service provision... Low 2
Minimal or no impact.
1 2 3 4 5
Minimal disruption. Nil / Minimum 1

By using the weight values, a risk matrix was built up. Annex A shows the risks table for the project
with their occurrence and impact. In this table, the probability of occurrence is multiplied by the
consequences of the risk. This results in a risk priority number (RPN) that indicates whether the risk
is high, medium or low. High and medium risks have designated a measure and action holder. The
action holder implements the measure and reduces the risk level to the new RPN.

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