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Chalmers University of Technology Department of Quality Science Total Quality Management (IEK311) October 2008, Gteborg

Design for Experiments


Helicopter Lab

Group13 - Robots

Authors: Christoffer jerhed Niklas H E Torstensson Gustav A Sandin Faisal Shahzad Abu Toha Md. Rashed

Table of Contents

Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 3 Methodology ................................................................................................................................... 3 Experiment ...................................................................................................................................... 3 Data Analysis .................................................................................................................................. 4 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................... 7

Appendix ......................................................................................................................................... 8

Introduction
This laboratory experiment was conducted as part of the Total Quality Management given by the Department of Quality at Chalmers. The task given was to construct and improve the design of a helicopter and measure how different factors affect flight time. The experiment was as group exercise in a group of five and the purpose was to understand some of the practical difficulties that can occur when using the Design of Experiment-method.

Methodology
To find the factors influencing helicopter flight-time a cause-and-effect diagram was constructed, see appendix A. From the basic design and the cause-and-effect diagram we concluded that possible important factors were body-length (A), body-width (B), rotor-length (C) and rotorwidth (D). According to the case description some factors could be excluded, for example helicopter weight and folding angles. From the cause-and-effect diagram a design matrix was constructed, see table 2. A two-level Fractional Factorial Design-matrix was used to avoid the unnecessary costs and incorrect result of one-factor-at-a-time experiment. With four factors to vary in a two-level experiment eight helicopters were constructed. The sign of factor D was determined from multiplying the signs from factors A, B and C respectively. The experiment was conducted repeatedly to reduce risk of dispersion and the data produced was analyzed. According to this analysis, some final helicopters were designed to verify the first experiment and our conclusions. A significance level of 5 % was used.

Experiment
As previously stated, the parameters changed in this experiment were body length (A), body width (B), rotor length (C) and rotor width (D). The variation of parameters was determined as a ratio of the basic design. The difference between the high and low levels was 26%, the high level being 13% longer than the basic design and the opposite for the low level. The high and low levels for each of the four factors for the first experiment are showed at the top in table 1.

Body length ( A ) Body width ( B ) Rotor length ( C ) Rotor width ( D ) High level ( + ) 17,00 cm 4,53 cm 12,47 cm 5,67 cm Low Level ( - ) 13,00 cm 3,47 cm 9,53 cm 4,33 cm Basic design 15,00 cm 4,00 cm 11,00 cm 5,00 cm Verification I 15,00 cm 2,88 cm 15,00 cm 5,00 cm Verification II 15,00 cm 2,47 cm 17,50 cm 5,00 cm
Table 1: Parameter values for the four factors

In the final verification the two most significant factors affecting the result were changed, this time increased by 36% and 60% respectively. These two factors were body width (B) and rotor length (C). The values from the verification helicopters were compared to the basic design as well as the values from the previously conducted experiments. The experiments were conducted in the Vasa-building the 2nd and 5th of October, respectively. Time-keeper and material for manufacturing the helicopters were distributed by the department. The helicopters were dropped ten times each in random series from a height of approximately five meters, where it was deemed high enough for the helicopter to get into rotation. To get sufficiently accurate result the dropping and the time measuring was performed by the same persons throughout the whole experiment.

Data Analysis
The raw data, for each helicopter and run, from the first experiment is showed in appendix B. In order to analyse the experiment the average flight times
i

are calculated as well as standard

deviations i for the helicopters, see appendix B. These are calculated according to the following general formulas:

Furthermore, we illustrate the fractional factorial design in a cube diagram. Since four factors are varied two cubes are needed. The two cubes are illustrated in figure 1. 4

Figure 1: The average flight times presented in a cube diagram

In the cube diagram we clearly see that when the rotor lengths are longer then the flight times are longer as well, and when the rotor length decrease, the flight time also decrease. However, to find out the significance of this observation and other characteristics possible influence on the flight time the estimators of the effects must be calculated and compared with the chosen significance level. The estimators of effects (E) are calculated using the liner contrast formula:

What sign to use for the different estimators, as well as the calculated estimators, are found in table 2.
Heliopter/Factor A=BXCXD B=AXCXD C=AXBXD D=AXBXC AXB=CXD AXC=BXD AXD=BXC 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Estimator of Effect Y 3.45 3.15 2.76 2.61 3.93 4.28 3.36 3.96

+ + + +
0.125

+ + + +
-0.53

+ + + +
0.89

+ + + +
0.025

+ + + +
0.1

+ + + +
0.35

+ + + +
0.085

Table 2: Estimator of effects

The value of the estimators illustrate how much the different factors and their interaction influence the flight time of the helicopter: the larger value of the estimator the larger possibility that its corresponding effect actually influence the flight time. However, to draw conclusions we must choose a significance level and decide what estimators are not following the normal distribution. A significance level of 5% is used since it is normal practice. Furthermore we need the standard deviations of the mean flight times and of the estimators, which are calculated according to the following formulas:

yi eff2 =

The calculations result in a standard deviation of the estimators of 0.03803. Finally, we compare the estimators themselves with the standard deviation. With a 5% significant level the estimators outside 1.96 standard deviations can be concluded to influence the flight time, thus all estimators larger than 0.075. To illustrate the reasoning we plot the estimators of effects and the normal distribution in the normal probability paper, see appendix C. We see that the estimators of A, B, C, AXB and AXD are larger than 0.075 and are thus influencing the flight times if a significant level of 5% is used. To verify the result we do another set of experiments. We choose to change the characteristics that influence the most, i.e. the ones with the absolut values: rotor length and body width. We increase the rotor length since its estimator has a positive sign and we decrease the body width since the sign of the estimator is negative. The chosen values can be found in table 2. Also the flight times of the basic helicopter design is measured, in order to be able to make sure the experiments have resulted in an increased flight time. In table 3 the result of these verifying experiments are presented.

Helicopter type Try 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Std dev Basic design 3.10 3.16 3.22 3.29 3.78 3.68 3.72 3.84 3.72 3.63 3.51 0.29 Verification I 4.35 5.00 5.09 5.47 5.22 5.22 5.25 5.37 5.25 5.47 5.17 0.32 Verification II 5.97 6.16 6.03 6.03 6.35 6.25 5.84 6.00 6.09 5.97 6.07 0.15

Table 3: Verification experiment I and II

Conclusion
In this laboratory experiment eleven paper helicopters in total have been constructed. After a brainstorming session four different factors, body-length (A), body-width (B), rotor-length (C) and rotor-width (D), which were expected to affect the flight-time were selected. Using the twolevel fractional factorial design tool it was decided that eight helicopters were needed for the first set of experiments. Analyzing the results of this experiment, it was found that to a significance level of 5% all factors except one (including the interaction between factors) had effect on the flight time. Due to time constraint only the two most important factors were changed and tested in the verification experiment. The body-width was decreased and the rotor-length increased. During the verification experiment also flight times of the basic helicopter design were recorded. These flight times are clearly shorter than the flight times of the other two verification designs. Thus we can conclude that the experiments have resulted in a helicopter design with a significantly increased flight time.

Appendix A

Figur 1: Cause-and-effect-diagram for flight time

Appendix B

Helicopter type Try 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Std dev 1 3,41 3,31 3,47 3,68 3,41 3,44 3,38 3,56 3,34 3,50 3,45 0,11 2 3,25 3,28 3,35 3,06 3,25 3,25 3,13 3,03 3,12 2,75 3,15 0,17 3 2,53 2,65 2,82 2,78 2,85 2,66 2,85 3,00 2,62 2,79 2,76 0,14 4 2,85 2,47 2,59 2,59 2,66 2,59 2,56 2,53 2,53 2,71 2,61 0,11 5 4,00 4,10 4,16 3,75 3,28 4,03 4,06 3,78 4,07 4,03 3,93 0,26 6 4,22 4,28 3,93 4,12 4,44 4,37 4,25 4,41 4,35 4,44 4,28 0,16 7 3,44 3,44 3,15 3,25 3,47 3,16 3,35 3,25 3,66 3,47 3,36 0,16 8 3,88 3,69 4,06 3,78 4,18 3,78 4,19 3,94 3,87 4,25 3,96 0,20

Table 1 Helicopter flight times for ten tries in the first experiment

Appendix C

Normal plot-diagram, will be shown on Friday at our presentation.

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