Hyperloop India 2018

Requirement Analysis
Stakeholder Requirements
1. The pod should win the competition.

System Requirements
1. The pod should reach the target velocity without crashing into the tube walls.
2. The pod should decelerate successfully without crashing into the tube.

Requirements explained
1. The pod should reach the target velocity without crashing into the tube walls.
a. The pod should have a propulsion system.
b. The pod might require an active attitude control system.
c. The pod may or may not have to levitate.
2. The pod should decelerate successfully without crashing into the tube.
a. The pod should have a braking mechanism. (contact/contactless braking)

Thus the active control system of the pod can be broadly classified in the following categories:
1. Propulsion:
a. Gas propulsion
b. Linear Induction Motors
c. Spinning halbach arrays
d. Wheels
e. Aircraft Catapult
2. Levitation:
a. Magnetic Levitation
b. Air bearings
c. No levitation
3. Active Attitude control
4. Braking

*The options listed beside each category are solely based on my knowledge at the time of
writing the document.
Plan of Action and Timeline
1. The first thing that we need to do is to decide on a target velocity that we intend to
achieve. For the purpose of this document, I consider a target velocity of 600 kmph.
2. Next, we start building each of the control systems in isolation to meet this target
velocity. I will elaborate on this point here. Let us consider the propulsion system. We
need to have a team exclusively working on designing a propulsion system to propel the
pod to a velocity of 600 kmph within half a mile of distance. This is how we will go about
it:
a. This team will have people researching parallely on all the options that we have
out there for propulsion (LIM, gas propulsion, etc.). So maybe we will have 2
people working on gas propulsion, 2 people working on propulsion using LIM,
and so on and so forth.
b. As soon as any of this group is ready with their propulsion system design, they
will be accompanied by a team of software, electronics, electrical engineers to
realise the design into a proof of concept.
c. And then this proof of concept will be tested in isolation to see if it is giving the
desired propulsion or not.
d. We go with the propulsion system that we can get to work the earliest. Others
groups can continue to research on their propulsion system designs which could
be incorporated in further iterations of the competition.
e. If we cannot come up with any decent working propulsion system till end of
December, then a meeting will have to be called to decide on how to move
ahead.
3. By end December we should have separate working prototypes of each of the 4 active
control systems.
4. Parallel to this the software and electronics team needs to finalise on the MCU/OS to be
used for the pod and should get familiar with tech stack to be used for the final pod.
5. The navigation system of the pod should be ready and should have been rigorously
tested within the same amount of time.
6. The structure team should complete the construction of the test track in the same
amount of time.
7. During December, we start and finish the complete design of the pod. This design would
include the following details:
a. The complete CAD model of the pod.
b. The final PCBs.
c. A closure on all the active control systems. (with working prototypes)
d. The mission profile of the pod.
e. The state machine.
f. The updated weight and the final velocity to be reached.
8. From January to April, we build the final system.
9. In May, we start testing our pod in Bangalore and test it rigorously over the summer.
Team Structure
I still believe following is the best way to go about things.

We should have the following leads (Group A leads):

1. Software
2. Electronics
3. Electrical
4. Controls
5. Structure

And along with this, we should also have separate leads for the following verticals (Group B
leads):
1. Levitation
2. Braking
3. Propulsion
4. VD/ Attitude control
We primarily require group B leads till the month of December. Once we have working POC for
the active control systems, we can dissolve the group B leads.

Where to start
The first thing to do if we are following this paradigm is to decide on the leads for each
subsystem. I propose we finish this latest by 10th September.
Then the leads need to do decide how many people to recruit in their subsystem. We should be
done with recruitments latest by 20th September inorder to stick to this timeline. And each
subsystem lead needs to have a plan of action for their respective subsystem as well by then.

We would need good IT support to carry out all of this smoothly. Thus it is really imperative that
we find a good web developer at the earliest as well.