Week 2 Update

And the race against the ten week term continues!  This week, the design for our first prototype of the two string stunt kite was completed.  After doing some more research, and looking at the video originally posted in Week One, we are pretty confident that our first prototype is going to be a great start.  We took some still shots of the first video and those are below in Figure 1 and Figure 2.

Figure 1 - Screenshot of Video

Figure 2 - Screenshot of Video

Figure 1 shows that the back of the kite is made of one long straight section and two rods running up vertically.  Figure 2 shows that their are three rods running from the back of the kite.  These are at the edges of the kite and run down the center.  We decided that this will be how we build the kite, as well.
Figure 3 illustrates the back view of the frame of the kite, and Figure 4 illustrates the top view of the frame.

Figure 3 - Back View of Kite Framing

Figure 4 - Top View Kite Framing

After drawing these figures, we then started to think about the materials that we are going to use.  It was previously determined that 2 mm carbon fibers rods were going to be used for the frame, and the fabric of the kite that goes over the frame was going to be plastic from plastic bags or garbage bags.

After discussing this matter again this week, we decided to stick with the carbon fiber rods, but we decided to use nylon instead of plastic.  We decided to choose this because nylon is a stronger, but lighter material than plastic that won't let air through it.  We also decided this week to make the connections between the rods with plastic tubing.  This will lead to semi-flexible connection points that are low cost and high strength.  After some consideration, it was determined that this would not work for the front connection point because of the angle measurements and the fact that there are three rods meeting at that point.  In order to make this rigid connection the easiest, the part should be 3D printed.  This connecting part was then built in Autodesk Inventor Pro, and we are planning on printing it next week.  An image of this piece is shown in Figure 5 below.

Figure 5 - Front Connection Point for First Prototype

A lot was completed this week, but we hope to do even more next week.  We hope to complete the first prototype, which includes printing the piece shown in Figure 5.  Hopefully we will also be able to test this prototype to determine the optimal string placement. Some problems we may find in the next week are the low rigidity of our connection points in the kite and the kite's poor weight distribution. Hopefully, if we do encounter these issues we will be able to solve them quickly.