Cutaway rendering of final pod design.

Major Subsystems and Parts:

Propulsion and levitation is achieved with a dual-stage axial fan at the front of the pod. The core of this compressor is shown in the image above, with the titanium shaft, two fans, bearings, and nose cone.

Peripheral jet air bearings take the compressed air from the compressor and use it to levitate the pod at a regulated 0.05" above the ground. Above is a CFD simulation of the air bearings before they were manufactured. From this simulation we determined the air bearings would work.

Intermediate pod sections have an air passageway above where the airbearings are mounted. All sections have rectangular encasements on each side where an aluminum support strut is inserted for structural integrity.

Airflow at the back is regulated with a simple butterfly style valve, actuated with a pushrod attached to a servo mounted above. This four-bar mechanism is optimised for the full range of the servo to correspond to the full range of the valve.

Control is achieved with an Arduino interfaced through an XBee radio. A computer running Simulink sends serial commands through another XBee.

The onboard Arduino also calculates the pod velocity with an IR sensor on the bottom of one airbearing. The track has alternating 2 inch black and white lines on its subtrack surface that the IR sensor picks up.

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