Figure 1. Pros and cons list of various contact shoe designs.

On Sunday, September 29th, the team met and covered a good amount of work. Each member documented their busy weeks for the Fall semester so that the workload can be distributed accordingly. Most of the time was spent on determining the third rail, shoe, and arm mechanism designs. A pors and cons list (figure 1) was made comparing the top, bottom, and side contact shoe designs (figure 2).

Figure 2. Top, bottom, side contact shoe designs.

It was decided that the Wayside team will implement a top contact for various reasons:

• gravity is acting in our favor
• top contact shoes are more abundant in the market
• has the most fail-safe options in comparison to other designs.
• easier to account for vibrations
• most flexibility

Figure 3. Sketch of third rail, arm mechanism, and contact shoe

Figure 3 shows a sketch that the team drew of the third rail, arm mechanism, and the contact shoe. In red are the solar panel and the safety side-walls. In green is the insulation. Figure 4 shows a CAD isometric design.

Figure 4. Isometric view of third rail and
the solar panels and side walls. 

On Thursday, October 2nd, different shoe materials were considered. Carbon graphite is a solid dry lubricant meaning that it slides easily and it would make sense to use it while the bogie is in motion. It was mentioned that copper has a lower resistivity and is less durable when compared to carbon graphite. A copper shoe could be used to more rapidly charge the bogie while it is stationary. The team will start thinking about whether it would make sense to implement both a copper and carbon graphite shoe in the design.

Additionally, the Wayside team consulted with the Power team twice this week to discuss charging and power distribution.

Written by,
Aryamtira Bake (Melody)