Makeosity Manta Ray Energy Scooter

Beginnings

One day as I was checking my emails, I saw an email forwarded to the mechanical engineering department for an offer from Karen Kaun to design a prototype for an electrical generator that can fit on the front of a scooter; as you rode the scooter, you would be able to generate an electrical charge which you could capture and charge your cell phone. Reading more into the project, I learned that I would be working with Karen and her company, Makeosity, to help teach some middle school students about the workings of generators, and help them build their idea. I became very excited, thinking that this project has a lot of potential, and quickly contacted Karen to be a part of the project.

Makerfaire

Our first goal was to create the best design we could by Makerfaire only a few weeks away. So I worked hard at quickly creating a simple prototype CAD design in sketchup of a modular generator that was supposed to fit on any kind of scooter. The girls had already designed a very basic prototype in which they attached a handcrank generator to the axle of a wooden scooter, but the setup was crude, and couldn't be replicated easily. Moreover, we decided to try and shift the focus to make it a stand-alone item so people wouldn't have to buy a full new scooter to use our product. So my design took precedence.

We ended up demoing the wooden scooter as well as my 3D models at Makerfaire. Originally we had hoped to 3D print parts of the modular design, but the timeline was too tight, so we ended up using just the computer models. It was a fun event where we met a lot of people, got a lot of great feedback, and got us excited about the project some more.

Autodesk

Through Karen, we ended up partnering with Autodesk in order to move the project forward and get it ready for a kickstarter. We were put in touch with William Watts of South Bronx Speed Shop who agreed to fabricate pieces of the hood that would fit over the generator with carbon fiber to make it look cool.

So, I hit the drawing board, and we decided to make a cool-looking integrated scooter that would work well with the hood. The hood and generator would still be modular and detachable to fit over any scooter, but we thought it might be nice to try and fabricate parts to have a fully integrated look. So Karen's students gave me some designs, and I gave them an "engineer's touch." We worked closely with Erica Nwankwo from Autodesk to teach the girls Fusion 360, and create amazing models of our design, and on my end, I spent dozens of hours in the Columbia Makerspace laser-cutting and 3D printing parts to make the generator actually fit onto the scooter. I ripped apart a hand-crank generator, and used the electronics for the prototype, fitting it around a laser-cut and assembled frame.

Finally, once the hood was modeled, and the generator was assembled, we brought it all together, and made all the parts work, creating a fully-functioning prototype to show off at an Autodesk world exhibit in Las Vegas.

Going Forward

We launched a kickstarter event for the scooter project, but unfortunately, it was unsuccessful. We're currently looking into other avenues in order to bring the product to market.