Kenya Make Energy?

By Evan Tony – ewt5114@psu.edu

Thomas Landi – tvl114@psu.edu

Peter Son – hxs5288@psu.edu

Project Assigned

For this project we were assigned with creating a family for a Case Study

Also, we were tasked with developing ing and testing a solution for charging a cell phone for this family.

Mission Statement

We aim to make a cheap, durable, and easy to use product to sell to third world families like our case

study that will charge their phone. Changing the way these families’ lives and making it easier for them to

communicate is our main goal.

Our Family for the Case StudyOur Family:

• Consists of Father, Mother, and Son.

o Nomadic Family

o Live in straw hut

• Lives in poorest area of Kenya

o Kenya is not very safe or stable

o Lowest population density area of Kenya

o Miles away from other families and cities

• Very low water and precipitation levels

Needs for Product

• Does not require water

• Is not flashy or attractive

• Safe to use

• Lightweight and portable

• Easy to understand

• Cheap

• Fits different sizes of people

From our knowledge of our customer, we developed a needs list:

Criteria

These needs turned into our criteria for choosing the best design:

• Effort needed to use … x7

• Price … x5

• Safety … x6

• Time to charge … x5

• Ease of assembly … x3

• Environmental impact … x2

• Upkeep … x5

Each criteria was then given a weighting of up to seven by importance

Decision MatrixTravel (Status Quo)

Shoe Generator

Mask Rock on Pedestal

Bike Magnets

Effort (x7) 3 21 5 35 5 35 2 14 4 28 5 35

Price (x5) 3 15 3 15 2 10 3 15 3 15 1 5

Safety (x6) 3 18 4 24 4 24 2 12 4 24 3 18

Time to Charge (x5) 3 15 2 10 1 5 2 10 5 25 2 10

Easy to Build (x3) 3 9 2 6 2 6 3 9 3 9 1 3

Environmental Impact (x2)

3 6 5 10 5 10 3 6 4 8 3 6

Upkeep (x5) 3 15 2 10 1 5 3 15 3 15 3 15

Sum 21 99 23 110 20 95 18 81 26 124 18 81

Deciding on a Design

After putting them all through a decision matrix we found that our bike dynamo engine was the best option for our customer because, according to our estimates the bike was:

• Moderately priced

• Durable

• Takes low time to charge phone

• Very Safe

• Low effort

• Lightweight/takes up very little room

Prototype 1

Tests

For our prototype we devised several tests to ensure it would work suit our customer’s needs.

Safety: User would ride the product for 3 minutes shoeless, and we would observe any possible dangers to them.

Durability:Use the product for three minutes and take note of any deterioration. If there were none, and no suspicions of stress points, the test would be passed.

Effort Requirement: User would use product for 3 minutes and would report any strenuous effort or discomfort

Ease of Understanding: Ask someone who has never seen the product before to use the device

Size Compatible: Have two heights at the opposite ends of the spectrum use the prototype

Strength: Place a 25 pound weight on top of the prototype for thirty seconds

Prototype 1 Tests/ Evaluation

These tests presented several issues:

• Possible injury or discomfort while using it

• Very awkward to use

o Both for a smaller and a larger person

• Prone to bending or breaking

• Structure was flimsy

• The product would slide away from the user frequently

Therefore, we needed to redesign the product.

Test Pass/Fail

Safety Fail

Effort Required Fail

Ease of Understanding

Pass

Size Compatible Fail

Durability Fail

Strength Fail

Prototype 2

Prototype 2

• The Second Prototype was a large

improvement over the first

prototype.○ No more possibility of injury

○ More versatile

○ Still easy to understand

○ Much sturdier due to double-thick

cardboard

• Yet there is still room for

improvement○ Connections bend with continued use

■ Makes the pedals get stuck and

therefore awkward to use

○ It slides away from the user

Test Pass/Fail

Safety Pass

Effort Required

Fail

Ease of Understanding

Pass

Size Compatible

Pass

Durability Fail

Strength Pass

Ideas for Prototype 3

Keep from prototype 2:

• Cardboard thickness

• Metal pedals and legs

• Length of the pedals and legs

Change for prototype 3:

• Thinner box• More secure connections between legs

and pedals• Include a seat for the user

○ Allow user to apply more pressure and speed without it sliding away

What We Learned

• Designing something directly related to the human body is much more difficult than we thought

• It was difficult to think of the needs of someone in another totally different lifestyle

• Using simple household items to make a prototype is very beneficial to learning how to actually design a product

• Price ranges and resources available act as a much larger constraint than originally thought

• Identifying how to improve our prototype during the production process takes a lot more effort than originally planned.