P19501: Blind Turn Warning System

Problem Definition

Table of Contents

1 Team Vision for Problem Definition Phase
2 Project Summary
3 Customer Interviews
4 Stakeholders
5 Use Scenario
6 Project Goals and Key Deliverables
7 Customer Requirements (Needs)
8 Engineering Requirements
9 Constraints
10 House of Quality
11 Benchmarking
12 Risk Assessment
13 Design Review Materials
14 Plans for next phase
15 Individual Plans

Team Vision for Problem Definition Phase

During the problem definition phase, our team came up with a problem statement of our assigned project. The definition that we came up with in short is: to design a system that can be deployed in vehicles that would give the driver information about the traffic coming up the hill that has not come into view in a safe and effective manner. The full problem definition can be seen on our project Home Page and below in the Project Summary Section.

With a problem definition in hand, a use case scenario was able to be created. The purpose of this flow chart is to have a quick visual indicator of how our solution will be used in practice to assist the vehicle driver not being able to see around the blind turn.

Once our problem definition was defined, we started compiling a list of customer and engineering requirements. The purpose of the customer requirements is to have an idea of what the customer envisions for the final product. The engineering requirements are the technical specifications of how to achieve the customer requirements.

Our team also came up with project goals and key deliverables. These are the expected end results of the projects, including what the customer can expect to receive at the end of the project. These can be viewed in the Project Goals and Key Deliverables section.

Project constraints were created. These are the limitations we considered when finalizing the engineering requirements.

Our house of quality was created to confirm that the engineering requirements include all of our customers requirements. It also helps to determine which design decisions should be made in regards to design priority.

Our plans for the next phase can be viewed in Plans for next phase.

Once we were able to comprise all these problem definition components, we were able to construct a problem definition review presentation. The presentation can be viewed here Design Review I Presentation.

During this problem definition phase, we completed all of the requirements.

Project Summary

Merging into traffic from an intersection requires an unobstructed view from both directions and enough time to join and match the current speed of traffic. Those already in traffic need to be vigilant of new drivers joining the flow of traffic and given enough time and space to stop if necessary. There is an intersection on Penfield Road, exiting from Allen’s Creek Valley (ACV) development that is ‘blind’ from the right to traffic coming up a hill shortly before the intersection. This could potentially be the cause of many accidents when the residents attempt to pull out to the left, to join the traffic cresting the hill. Speeds up the hill are typically 45 mph (the speed limit is 35 mph). An immediate issue to those pulling out is the oncoming traffic from the right. Currently, Allen's Creek Valley development has no such system near the hill with an intersection.

The goal of this project is to design a system that can be deployed in vehicles that would give the driver information about the traffic coming up the hill that has not come into view in a safe and effective manner. The end result should be a concept prototype that can be pitched as an example system. The design must be able to identify any oncoming traffic, present the information easily, fail safely, function in all types of weather, and the power requirement must be within the limits of of a standard car plug.