ANTHONY STUART

Design

The ground station consisted of three main components: the azimuth box and tube, the elevation box, and the dish. As part of my job, I was required to accurately model each of the components that went into these subsystems, and ensure that they all fit together properly. This consisted of measuring actual purchased parts like cameras and switches using calipers and modeling them in SolidWorks. It also involved creating custom parts to improve upon the design, like adding windows to the plates in the elevation box to aid in assembly or designing a new system to mount encoders. 

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Documentation

After finishing the CAD model, I had to document the information in a way that could be helpful for the machinists and engineers who would manufacture and assembly the parts. I made a spreadsheet of all of the parts in the assembly that would need to be machined, and included checkboxes to indicate the status of the parts, such as whether or not the part had been sent to the machine shop or whether it still needed modifications in the CAD. I then created detailed part drawings of each of the machined components, so that the machinists would have all the information needed to manufacture them exactly as designed. Finally, I created detailed assembly drawings for the azimuth box and tube, elevation box, and over all assembly. These documents showed step-by-step instructions for how to properly assemble each subsystem, and how to put these subsystems together in the top-level assembly.

Results

By the conclusion of my internship, I was able to create a complete CAD model of the PicoSat Ground Station, as well as part drawings for every machined part and assembly drawings for every major subsystem. All in all, the project provided me with great experience managing complex high-level assemblies and creating thorough assembly drawings. A sample image of a ground station similar to the one  that I worked on can be seen to the right.