Need and usage of the AEV Lab:
The team was tasked with creating and coding an Advanced Energy Vehicle that would allow them to complete the Mission Concept Review provided. The team worked to complete this objective while focusing on energy management, operational efficiency, and operational consistency. The goal of the project was to traverse a track with the intent of picking up cargo, after this the team was then tasked with traversing the track with cargo attached and leaving it at the delivering it to the drop zone. This was all done while meeting operational requirements and design constraints.
The design was built to solve the overall mission objective in the most efficient manner the team could come up with. This objective being running the teams AEV’s on the track and retrieving and delivering an R2D2 located on the opposite side of the track. The team first worked on writing a code that would allow the AEV to travel along the first half of the track, upon arrival to the gate the team made it so that their AEV would stop and wait in front of the second sensor for seven seconds, this allowed for the gate blocking the track to open so that the AEV could continue traveling towards the R2D2.
The AEV project introduced management and the need for teamwork while also introducing the design process the team began to learn about the semester prior. The AEV project also allowed the team to obtain knowledge in energy concept and energy management. Not only that but the lab introduced the usage of project documentation and provided the team with the skills that they would need following future endeavors.