Project Work Plan ¶

Note: contents are still in development and subject to change.

At this stage each project pair should have a jointly produced concept for an automated musical instrument to develop for the final performance. Our next objective is to resolve all design details to the point where materials can be gathered or purchased and a proof-of-concept prototype can be fabricated and tested.

Purchasing parts and materials frequently represents a key rate-limiting milestone on the critical path. Making efficient and successful purchasing decisions requires a clear plan for the overall bill of materials (BOM) and budget. However, producing this plan requires resolving the detailed design to a level where all elements have been identified. This typically requires drawing mechanical designs at a level sufficient to resolve all significant design decisions. In parallel with the mechanical development is identification of candidate solutions for actuation, power, interfacing, and programming.

Learning Objectives ¶

The assignment will help you to:

Resolve conceptual requirements into tangible physical design details.
Draw a machine design at a functional level to reveal needed parts and relations without final detail.
Identify requirements for electronic and computational resources.
Write a bill of materials.

Prompts ¶

Please be sure to answer the following questions about the implementation details. The final selection may be contingent on testing, but please provide plausible initial choices.

What is the essential physical sound production process?
What is the Hornbostel-Sachs [1] classification?
What actuators of what type, speed, and power are needed?
What electronics platform will you use for interfacing?
What programming platform will you use for control?
What essential sound qualities do you expect to control?
How will the sound be shaped via automation for a musical effect?

Milestones ¶

Each project will have specific unknowns which need to be resolved in order for the design to work. Our projects usually proceed through several smaller proof-of-concept demonstrations which test specific elements early.

Please carefully consider which critical elements are necessary for success and plan to test them first. It is tempting to begin designing the parts which are most familiar or likely to work, but that will be wasted effort if a fundamental assumption doesn’t hold.

Design Process ¶

Drawing and sketching is the fastest way to explore all design questions. The key is disciplined drawing which evaluates part function and interactions at a meaningful level of detail. It it generally not efficient to rush to CAD drawings; time committed to the detail of a CAD model may be wasted if the overall spatial and functional organization isn’t settled.

Bill of Materials ¶

A Bill of Materials (BOM) in engineering is a complete accounting of every component of a manufactured product. It is a useful tool for managing the complete set of material requirements involved in fabricating a device.

A Bill of Materials is generally presented in tabular format; a Google Sheet is recommended. A rough template is available as BOM-template.xlsx.

For our purposes, a bill of materials typically involves three categories:

Fabricated parts, e.g. parts you will laser-cut or 3D print.
Special components not available in the standard lab stock. These may require purchasing or are sometimes available from the class reserve inventory.
Stock lab parts, including both electronics and mechanical. A product manufacturing BOM will include every last fastener, but for our purposes this is not needed.

Deliverables ¶

Please post a brief report as a document to the appropriate shared folder. Please include the following:

a project or piece working title
concept statement (updated as needed)
prioritized list of project milestones
four to five detailed hand drawings of the full prototype showing all external and internal parts to scale and relation (not yet CAD)
a bill of materials identifying all purchased and fabricated components