The New Bike
This is the next platform of the Cornell Autonomous Bicycle Team. It is intended to be a more stable, reliable, and versatile platform than The Old Bike. The bike is nearly complete with completion expected in Spring 2022. LAST UPDATE FALL 2021
Contents
Design Overview
The main objective for the new bicycle was to prevent the need for welding and other permanent structures compared with the Old Bike. To do this, we've adopted a modular design approach with all the added components of the bicycle to allow for re-design opportunities of different parts and fixtures present on the bike. This approach will extend the usefulness of the platform for years to come.
The final design for the bike can essentially be split up into two major regions: the Brain and the Body. This split is defined by the connection between different components. The “Brain” sits around the diamond of the bike frame while the “Body” is situated around and extending outward from the head tube. This distinction, though somewhat ironic considering the relative locations of the regions, is useful because it lends itself to let us think and design more locally.
The “Brain” is defined by its contents: the electronics. It is composed of 4 clamp-like components, 2 sheets of acrylic, and 2 panels for the electronics to sit. The clamp-like components connect to the edges of the bike diamond in order to give the acrylic sheets points to connect to in order to enclose the frame. The electronics, once situated onto their corresponding panels, will be attached with velcro to the acrylic sheets. Similar to the brain, the “Body” is defined by its function, in this case, the handling of actuation and vision on the bike. The body is composed of 2 main intertwining assemblies. One centered around the motor and the other around the camera.
Mechanical Components
Frame Brackets
The frame joint acts to suspend the clear panes that will encase the electronics in the center of the bike. Each frame bracket is designed to adhere to a specific portion of the bike's geometry.
Top Frame Bracket
The top frame joint is specifically is made for the rounded surface on the top tube and seat tube of the bike. It is made up of 4 major components: the base, a piece of rubber that sits between the bike and the base, two hex head screws, and two nuts to match.
Near the bottom edge of the part, there are four threaded holes (two on either side) that indicate where the part will attach to the acrylic panes. The rubber sits directly on top of the curved edge of the aluminum. It is meant to provide grip strength so that the component does not slip out of place. There are two 9/16" holes on top that propagate through the entire design and the bike frame itself that make space for the bolts and nuts to compress all the components to the bike frame.
The top frame brackets were 3d printed with high amounts of infill. The top brackets were originally intended to be machined out of aluminum but the large diameter hole at the parts center proved too large to drill with the means available to us. To that end, the final design uses threaded inserts, that were heated with a soldering iron and slipped into the intentionally widened holes of the top frame bracket. The results of this can be seen in the accompanying image.
Bottom Frame Bracket
The bottom frame joint has an identical function as the top frame joint. However, the bottom frame joint's geometry differs from it because the cross-section of the bottom tube is elliptical. This presented a unique design challenge that we had to workaround. We ended up settling on an idea that combines 4 different parts together: 2 flat plates, a hemispherical piece, and rubber.
In order to match the elliptical shape of the bottom tube, these parts are screwed together as seen in the image. There exist larger holes on the surface of the hemispherical piece to make room for screw heads, and there exist threaded holes that cut through half of the flat pieces. Near the top edge of the flat plates, there are threaded screw holes for attachment to the clear planes. The rubber again acts as a way to grip the components to the frame and prevent slip. Just like the top frame joint, there are two 9/16" holes made in both the frame, rubber, and hemispherical piece to make room for the bolts and nuts to compress the system to the bike frame. 2 Bottom frame joints will be used to hold the clear plane.
- Someone add about machining issues?*
Electronics Panel
As stated prior, two acrylic sheets will be sitting in between the frame of the bicycle. The panels will be supported by the frame brackets.
As of Fall 2021, the acrylic panels have been mounted.
Front Motor Assembly
Motor Connection point
Motor Enclosure
Motor shaft collar
Camera Assembly
The main requirements for the camera assembly were to have a modifiable angle of roughly ~10 degrees, for the camera in its default position have 20% of its field of view be above the horizontal, for the camera height to be editable, and for the camera to sit a foot above handlebar height. With a field of view of 56 degrees, 20% field of view equates to the camera sitting at an angle of 26.8 degrees below the horizontal. In the full assembly, this results in a range of 16.8 to 36.8 degrees for the positioning of the camera. These points were easily achieved with the final design of the camera assembly which featured a seat and adjustable framework that allowed for easy manipulation of the height and angle of the camera.
The camera seat components are slated to finish manufacturing early Spring 2022.
Camera Seat
The final design of the camera seat consists of 6 parts: 4 connecting bars and 2 small machined blocks of aluminum. The first rectangle of aluminum is used as an anchor for the camera itself. It has a ¼” hole near its center to make room for a bolt to attach the piece to the camera’s threaded bottom. The second rectangle of aluminum serves to connect the clamping components (connecting bars) to the system. Similar length bars are paired together and clamped, by way of nut and bolt, to the top of the upright piece. In addition, the upright piece also has a squared hole in order to make room for the USB of the camera. This piece is then connected to the first piece of aluminum by 4 screws. The piece was prototyped in Spring of 2021 and slated to be completed by Spring 2022.
The camera seat acts as a point of securement for the camera on the new bike and as such needs to fulfill the goals of interfacing with the variable angle and variable height components within the body assembly. This requires the camera seat to fit onto the assembly bar detailed below. The design allows the camera seat to fulfill these goals by clamping directly to the connections at the end of the connecting bars to which the assembly bar would be placed in between. These bars are specifically designed to uphold the design requirements of the camera: needing to have 20% of its field of view above the horizon in the default position and enabling variable height.
Head Tube Bracket
The head tube clamp was made from 2 machined pieces of aluminum. Both have a large curvature on one of their faces in order to interface with the bike. Similar to the frame brackets, the inner curved surface of the grips has a piece of rubber to ensure that the clamps do not slip. The two pieces are compressed together through the use of four 5M 20mm screws. The significance of the Head Tube clamp is in allowing for variable angle to be achieved through its interfacing with the assembly bar.
Assembly Bar
The assembly bar is secured by one of the motor attachments as mentioned earlier. A clamp is attached to the top of the head tube. This clamp has on it an extruded piece of aluminum with its own slot. Sliding the assembly bar’s slot up or down relative to the slot of the head tube bracket allows for different angles to be achieved. This angle is able to be changed +/- 10 degrees from its origin. The assembly bar has multiple points that the connecting bars can connect to on the assembly bar. This allows the camera to be moved up and down along these holes and thus change the height of the camera. The assembly bar itself is positioned at a 15-degree angle from vertical in its default state and thus the computation for the length of the connecting bars reflects this.
Battery Assembly and Rack
Bike Details
The frame is a ***cm KTM Trento with serial number ******.
The wheels are 27 inches in diameter. The planned tires will be 27 inch road bike tires. General dimensions for the bike can found in the image to the right.
