Project Description
For this Reverse Engineering project, we were tasked with doing a teardown of an item of our choosing. My group chose a solar powered dancing flower, shown below. The question that we asked ourselves when doing this project was: how do the subystems of this product work together to create the overall system of the dancing flower? To answer this question, we took detailed notes and sketches of the product, both as a whole and as individual parts. We had to disassemble the product down to the lowest possible parts and think about how these parts were made, how they worked or fit together with the other parts, and how they achieved their function. To create our presentation, we split the analysis into four parts: functional, structural, material, and manufacturing. Each group member specialized in one part of the analysis, and then we combined our findings together to create a clear overall picture of the project. Overall, we spent about 2 days analyzing the object and taking notes, and the rest of our time (classes over a 2 week period) doing additional research online and writing a report of our findings.
We presented our findings with a Google Slides presentation, and we also turned in a written report, both of which can be found below. After we completed the project, it was very interesting to see how many different parts and aspects there are to this seemingly simple product. Within the 2 week timeframe, we were able to analyze much of the product, but there is still tons of analysis that could be done, which could take months more. This project helped me take into perspective all the effort and time that goes into designing everything around us, no matter how small.
We presented our findings with a Google Slides presentation, and we also turned in a written report, both of which can be found below. After we completed the project, it was very interesting to see how many different parts and aspects there are to this seemingly simple product. Within the 2 week timeframe, we were able to analyze much of the product, but there is still tons of analysis that could be done, which could take months more. This project helped me take into perspective all the effort and time that goes into designing everything around us, no matter how small.
Below is my group's presentation and report for the Reverse Engineering Project:
Concepts
Reverse Engineering - method used to analyze an existing product to see how it is made, and possibly how to re-make or improve it.
Invention - design work that creates something new.
Innovation - improving an existing product or idea.
Teardown - disassembly of a product/item for the process of reverse engineering.
Functional Analysis - analysis that deals with function of different parts, how they work together, and the scientific principles that are related to these parts/how they function.
Structural Analysis - analysis that deals with how the parts are supported and connected together, and the purpose of each part.
Materials Analysis - analysis that answers what materials were used and why they were used.
Manufacturing Analysis - analysis that determines how the product was made, how raw materials were made into the finished product.
Many facets of this project relate to other disciplines. For example, human factors and ergonomics play a large role in reverse engineering because we must analyze why certain design decisions were made for human products. For example, the pot for our product fits easily in the average palm. A bigger design, while it could hold more, might not be as good ergonomically. Another area that connects with this engineering project is physics, which helped us explain the electrical circuit in our product. This was an integral part of the functional analysis. Lastly, we used a lot of English skills and concepts to write our report after we finished our analysis.
Invention - design work that creates something new.
Innovation - improving an existing product or idea.
Teardown - disassembly of a product/item for the process of reverse engineering.
Functional Analysis - analysis that deals with function of different parts, how they work together, and the scientific principles that are related to these parts/how they function.
Structural Analysis - analysis that deals with how the parts are supported and connected together, and the purpose of each part.
Materials Analysis - analysis that answers what materials were used and why they were used.
Manufacturing Analysis - analysis that determines how the product was made, how raw materials were made into the finished product.
Many facets of this project relate to other disciplines. For example, human factors and ergonomics play a large role in reverse engineering because we must analyze why certain design decisions were made for human products. For example, the pot for our product fits easily in the average palm. A bigger design, while it could hold more, might not be as good ergonomically. Another area that connects with this engineering project is physics, which helped us explain the electrical circuit in our product. This was an integral part of the functional analysis. Lastly, we used a lot of English skills and concepts to write our report after we finished our analysis.
Reflection
This reverse engineering project interested me because it opened a new facet of engineering to me: designing things backwards. One peak, something that I improved on, during this project was time management. My group learned how to use a Gantt chart to effectively plan and execute our tasks. In prior projects, my teams have not finished tasks as effectively because we had no way to organize the tasks. With this new method, our work was a lot more efficient and our group communication also improved because we had to talk about the tasks. Another peak, something I also improved on, was online research. Because we had a product that we knew nothing about, much of our analysis came from additional information we found online.
However, there were also parts that we could've improved on. One pit that we could have improved on was our visuals in the presentation. We needed more sketches showing the product broken down with labeled parts. We also could have added pictures with a ruler next to it to show perspective on the item. Another pit was our overall goal in the presentation. I think we could have added more information on "why?" and "how?" we did the project to give the audience an idea of what reverse engineering is and why we did this project to learn what we did. Also, it could have been useful to then add what we would change about the product, or what we would not change.
However, there were also parts that we could've improved on. One pit that we could have improved on was our visuals in the presentation. We needed more sketches showing the product broken down with labeled parts. We also could have added pictures with a ruler next to it to show perspective on the item. Another pit was our overall goal in the presentation. I think we could have added more information on "why?" and "how?" we did the project to give the audience an idea of what reverse engineering is and why we did this project to learn what we did. Also, it could have been useful to then add what we would change about the product, or what we would not change.