February 20, 2013
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Challenge: "In a group with two or three members, design a vehicle with a single motor, powered by a PicoCricket, that can carry a 1.0 kg weight as fast as possible on a 3 meter course. You should use one of the old gray rectangular motors that does not have internal gearing. This will force you to experiment with building your own gear trains. This is a non-trivial challenge that will require many design iterations on your part. You will have today, Friday, and next Wednesday to work on this challenge. There will first be a test run in which you will pit your vehicle against others on the 3 meter course. On the following day final competitive event will be held. You should document each iteration of your design in your design blog."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Today, my partner Dana and I used our class time to brainstorm and to experiment with different Lego pieces. We tried building different parts (the main body, wheel and axle system, and gear system) separately and selected what we thought were the best choices.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Things to consider:
-car should be as light as possible
-traction (wheels)
-old motor
-how and where we place the weight (sideways)
-use least number of gears (each time, can lose a bit of
energy due to friction)
*But, we realized that having more gears can provide more torque.
-simple yet effective design
Played around with parts
-Looked at motors and PicoCrickets.
-Worked with different Lego pieces.
Ideas while playing with Lego pieces:
-Motor can power one set of wheels (versus all 2 sets)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After our initial brainstorming session, we read the Powerpoint on gears provided by Professor Banzaert. We learned the importance of gears and their ratios. For our design, we decided to go from a smaller gear to a larger gear to add more torque. (We tried a gear ratio of 1:3:2, but we realized we had to think more about the gear ratio and avoid randomly trying out ideas.) At one point, we tried to use a crown gear (this gear was placed perpendicularly to the gear attached to the motor and the gear on the axle turning the wheel). However, we realized it was difficult to properly align the gears, and this system failed with the weight.
Dana and I decided not to use the Pugh chart for this project because we did not know enough about gear systems to compare. Instead, we experimented with different systems and determined what we thought were the best designs/systems. (More on this later.)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After our initial brainstorming session, we read the Powerpoint on gears provided by Professor Banzaert. We learned the importance of gears and their ratios. For our design, we decided to go from a smaller gear to a larger gear to add more torque. (We tried a gear ratio of 1:3:2, but we realized we had to think more about the gear ratio and avoid randomly trying out ideas.) At one point, we tried to use a crown gear (this gear was placed perpendicularly to the gear attached to the motor and the gear on the axle turning the wheel). However, we realized it was difficult to properly align the gears, and this system failed with the weight.
Dana and I decided not to use the Pugh chart for this project because we did not know enough about gear systems to compare. Instead, we experimented with different systems and determined what we thought were the best designs/systems. (More on this later.)
No comments:
Post a Comment