Preliminary Design Document

Goal: The goal of this assignment is for you to complete a preliminary design review and produce a preliminary design document outlining the systems, requirements, constraints, and basic conceptual design.

Scenario: You have just been hired as a new system engineer at Robots-R-Us because of your past experience with managing complex projects dealing with robotics. You have been asked to prepare a preliminary design document of a robot to deliver mail from your mailbox. This is a specific robot that will be designed for a specific house; taking into account the settings, type of mailbox, location, and other environmental constraints.
Below is what you will need to do:
1. Describe in detail what the robot needs to do. Pictures of the residence, the mailbox, the path to the mailbox would need to be included.
2. Identify, list, and describe the sub-systems needed to accomplish this project. To simplify this, you are allowed to use off-the-shelf products as sub-systems.
3. Perform a requirements analysis. List and elaborate on the requirements.
4. Perform the requirements allocation and designate or list the Configuration Items.

Deliverables: Create a Preliminary Design Document that includes the components from steps 1-4. The expectation is to have a document between 1200-2500 word (approx.. 5-10 pages), excluding cover page, table of contents, figures, charts, diagrams, references, and appendices.
You can use Microsoft Visio or any other program to create that diagram or charts.
Here are some examples of the design document that you will need to produce:
• http://web.mit.edu/jhawk/tmp/p/designProposal.pdf
• http://lss.fnal.gov/archive/other/ssc/ssc-gem-tn-93-448.pdf
• http://www.ewbncsu.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/524-Preliminary-Design-Form.pdf
• https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/4457572/preliminary-design-document-pdf-aausatii-ihk-edudk

As you can see, the format and content of the preliminary design document can vary and there is no set standard. It is more important for you to have complete information about the preliminary design that you are proposing.
Here are some key areas that you should have:
1. Introduction or background information about the system
2. Detailed information about the location where this system will be used (include the drawing or diagram of the house, sidewalk, and the mailbox)
3. System (and subsystems) requirements
4. Constraints and potential problem areas
5. Details of your conceptual design, including details of any subsystems.
6. You do not have to provide details on the electronics or the mechanical aspects of the design, the cost analysis, or the project timeline.