Evolution of AEV Design:
- Gear Design
This sketch is the very first AEV design. Notice that the belt system is not included. The AEV is powered by multiple gears chained together and turned by a single motor. This design is excluded due to the concern that the teeth on the gears might not match perfectly. The more gear is used, the more the power is needed to provide movement to the AEV. The group decided to change the gears to pulleys.
2. Pulley System
Advanced forward with the design, our team decided that there are too much factors that needed to be considered for the chained gear design. Given the schedule of the class, gear design was excluded. The group came up with another design, which is the pulley system design. This design incorporates two motors, two wheels and a belt. The belt is to be attached to the motors and the wheels, so when motor starts. the belt rotates. The AEV will be propelled by the movement of the belt rotating.
3. Pulley System: 2-Motor
A problem with the previous design was discovered. If a belt was to rotate the gears and the wheels on the AEV, the AEV cannot sit on the monorail. To accommodate the requirement of the monorail, our team decided to double-wheel the wheels on the arm. The two wheels are tightly glued together and act as a single wheel.
4. Pulley Design: 2-Motor, Reversed Motor
The previous 2-motor design is not balanced. The center of balance is off center. To fix the problem, the group decided to reverse the direction the motor is facing so the center of balance is in between the two wheels.
5. Pulley Design: Three-Motor
As the problem with the monorail was solved, the group wanted to find out whether 3-motor design is more efficient compare to 2-motor in terms of power usage. A third motor is mounted in between the two motors from the previous design. The motor is raised and that the direction of rotation is different for the motors.