Smart Luggage Transfer and Passenger Data System

Overview:
I was actively involved in a design project with my teammates Zarnab Ghumman, Preetish Kokkiligadda, and Farouq Alarkawi, where we developed a Smart Luggage Transfer and Passenger Database System to automate baggage handling and improve passenger data management at airports. This mechanism efficiently moves luggage between platforms, while the database shows the real-time passenger details.

Concept:
The project began with looking into the inefficiencies in airport luggage transfer systems due to manual handling. After brainstorming solutions and coming up with our design concepts, we then selected Preetish Kokiligadda's design that included a CAD model with a rotary and a linear actuator for efficient luggage transport between two platforms. The overall mechanism requires less material cost and was designed to be lightweight by hollowing out the walls of the mechanism. We used 3D-printed parts to further reduce the material costs while maintaining the precision.

I contributed primarily to the software side, where our team built a python-based passenger database system. This system displayed key passenger information, such as layovers, gate numbers, and flight details, in a graphical format using python turtle. I focused more on refining the database functionality, making sure that it runs smoothly, and integrating the software with the hardware to control the luggage movement with fleet data and flyer data.

As the team coordinator, I organised meetings, tracked milestones, and facilitated communication. I made sure tasks were appropriately carried out and the project was addressing the challenges and stayed on track in accordance with our Gantt chart developed.

During our testing phase, we came up with an issue: "How could we avoid the slight imbalance of the mechanism with the base platform while its moving forward?" To solve this issue, I would extrude our mechanism a further towards the base at its edges so that it stays balanced. A minor challenge that we had was at the time of debugging the final code. There were slight inaccuracies in determining the exact coordinate of the point where the Q-Arm was supposed to drop the luggage.

Hence, this project overall enhanced my problem-solving skills and my coding skills while working in a collaborative environment. I learnt the value of debugging and testing multiple iterations for best results. Therefore, time management and effective coordination throughout the team led to the success of our project.