Building Prototype and Testing Solution

HOWDY,

It’s a great day and you are in the right place, doing the right thing despite the fact that our country is in partial lockdown– ‘Thinking Innovation and making the society a great place to be.’

Hurray!!! Our first Prototype for our Project is out. Isn’t it Exciting? We are so excited to bring to you today chapter and more importantly, will be talking about “Building Prototype and Testing Solution”. In previous blogs, we talked about how we communicated with the community partner to know more about the problem through to the ideation phase. We also explained to you how we would be working virtually as a team due to the Global pandemic. Incase you have forgotten here is a highlight.

“Our team is working with people from the rural communities who are not used to the virtual work-place. As a team, we plan to send them more videos and pictures of the team’s so that they are updated.”

The communication of the low-fi prototype to the user

To start with, user testing is performed at all stages of the design process, and the most impactful results are achieved using prototypes due to the immediate value given back to the design team. What is a prototype? The best way to think about prototypes is that they’re a representation of a finished product. A way for designers to test general feasibility and usability of a product before building and designing a fully-functioning product.

As a team finding a solution to help rural farmers produce groundnut on a large scale, we found it necessary to build prototypes of our solutions. As an entrepreneur, engineer, businessman/woman, whatever term you may use, you must be aware by now about how important it is to be innovative in your solutions. Due to the fact that we are working virtually, a video was made by one of the group member detailing the procedures through which the prototype can be built and using available home materials. The video was sent to the community partner through WhatsApp.

This video was necessary because we wanted the user to have a physical model so that he gets a hands on feel of the physically work. After the video was sent, the communications manager of the team had a conference call with the community partner. Some few questions were asked and feedback was taken. Some of the questions asked includes: What is he expected to be able to do with the prototype provided? A video explaining how the various prototypes work was sent thereafter and feedback was also taken from the user.

Images of the low-fi prototype of the various sub-systems

Feedback given by the user after presenting the low-fi

The main purpose of presenting the prototype to the user was to obtain some qualitative and quantitative feedback allowing the team to obtain a more balanced picture of what works and doesn’t work for users. Find below some of the feedback that was obtained.

Interviewee: Ebenezer Obeng from Parakou Estate Dome, Mr Gbeve from Dzodze-Penyi (Ghana)

Interviewers: Charlotte Dawson-Amoah, Joana Armandine Amessouwoe

Date of Interview: Monday 27th April 2020, Wednesday 29th April 2020

Description of Users: Mr. Obeng is mainly a sweet potato farmer who dabbles in other crops such as vegetables, fruits and legumes such as maize. He has opened a small-scale groundnut farm with a few labor hands who manually shell the groundnuts. Similarly, Mr. Gbeve is a teacher at Dzodze-Penyi Senior High School, who is also a small-scale farmer.

Feedback

Among the aspects that the users commended about our design is the shorter time period of shelling that the sheller allows for a greater quantity of groundnuts compared to what they are shelling now. They also expressed approval for the fact that the sheller prevents hand blisters. And agreed with some of our assessments that the power subsystem, which utilizes a pedal system as the main source of shelling power would be beneficial for a lot of small-scale farmer. One of our users emphasized how the pedal system would be crucial in the rural areas where there is either no power at all or it is inefficient and unreliable. He also expressed how the pedal system can also be used a source of exercise, especially among the youths in those areas.

Furthermore, they also expressed appreciation for the fact that the design is easily portable, and this would allow the farmers to easily move it before, during and after the shelling process. One of the other key aspects also, based on the needs expressed in phase I, was that the sheller had to utilize minimal labour. From this feedback session, they expressed approval for the minimised labour the shelling process required as opposed to that required for the hand-shelling process that is most used by a lot of farmers, as well as the other forms of shelling or cracking as is the term used by most small farmers.

Feedback from faculty (supervisors)

The faculty was impressed by the step to step show of the prototype building

Results from tests on the low-fi prototype

For the Power system, the total force exerted on the bicycle frame result in tolerable torsional stress which is maximum on the outer edges of the frame as shown above. We can infer that the bicycle frame can last for a longer period, guaranteeing the durability design requirement as indicated by our community partner.

For the shelling subsystem, the results show that the tip of the pointed spikes will deform with magnitude of 4.044×10−2 mm as indicated by the red colour. We have concluded that the sharpness of the spikes needs to be reduced by blunting it or chamfering to reduce stress concentration. Basing on the evaluation criteria, the sharp object will fail at a after a short time of use which is not favourable to our user hence iteration on the shelling device has to be done.

For separation subsystem, From this simulation, the maximum buckling amplitude was experienced at the outlet of the groundnuts. This is the place where the buckling would likely occur first.

Therefore, for the separation subsystem, the simulations prove that the material chosen, which is affordable and easily available, would be able to allow the shelling of a large amount of groundnuts at a time

CONGRATULATIONS YOU JUST MADE IT TO THE END OF OUR POST

SEE YOU NEXT WEEK!!!!!