Auto White Board Eraser

Today many teachers spend valuable lecture time cleaning a white board by hand. Several minutes are wasted per lecture. If white board could clean itself, those minutes could be put to good use. Requirements set out by the team were: - The Auto Board Wiper will clean a classroom white board in one pass. - Using a horizontally sliding arm it will clean the board at a rate of 0.3 m/s. - It will plug into a standard 120VAC wall outlet and can be attached to any wall.

Brain Storming

Through the brain storming process the choices of how to go about building the Auto Board Wiper were narrowed down. The two final options are pictured below.

Vertical wiper

Horizontal wiper.

After exploring all the option the team decided that a horizontally moving wiping surface was the most practical way to go about it.

Applying the proper pressure on the eraser arm had to be brain stormed.

To get the proper pressure on the eraser surface it was decided that springs were the way to go for the time constraints and cost effectiveness.

Board Sketch Model

Using the most basic of materials a sketch model was made to visualize how the autoboard would work. The exercise helped the team fully understand what was required and move forward with their project.

Mock up prototype
After the concept was evaluated a feasibility prototype was made.

Using 2X4 wood studs, sliding drawer rails, and springs for pressure, our functional model proved that our design was feasible. Much was learned from this experience about how the design could be improved. Adjustments were made and the team proceeded to build the final Alpha prototype.

Work In Progress
Many steps were taken to get to the alpha prototype made.

The friction force the cleaning arm applies to the board surface as it wipes was found. The coefficient of friction for the cleaning material used was tested to get the proper motor strength. A simple 2000g exercise weight and a standard dry eraser were used to find the coefficient.

| A finite element analysis (FEA) was performed to get the proper pressure of the eraser arm. The stiffness of the materials needed to be analyzed to make sure that an even amount of pressure is distributed across the eraser arm.

The circuit was modified many times before being finalized. There were many trials and even more errors to overcome before the circuit was ready to be used.

The operational circuit was tested and retested to ensure working performance.