Propeller Configuration

Design 1

This was the group’s first configuration tried out. The team decided to try the bigger blades to see if there would be an increase in efficiency instead of the smaller blades. It was recorded that this caused in increase on the power vs time graph.

Design 2

Going off of the first configuration, the team decided to think outside the box and try if two blades on the same motor would work, after checking that it was allowed to be tested. Two small blades on the inside accompanied by two larger blades in front was tried. Luckily, this test worked out and this idea increased efficiency even more. There was an increase on the power vs time graph as well as the distance vs time.

Design 3

For the third trail, the team decided to go back to the standard two small blades. They wanted to see if the risk of the bigger blades as well as two on the same motor was worth it if the efficiency was increased that much than with these normal blades. It was concluded that it was worth the extra little push to abandon this trial and try to work on the safety with the other blades.

Design 4

For the last trial, seeing how well the bigger blades and multiple blades on one motor turned out, the team decided to try two bigger blades on each motor instead of one big and one small. If there has been an increase in the other trails with changing these, so maybe this would give a boost even more. Unfortunately these blades did not end up fitting on the pin of the motor during testing and actually fell off during the first trial run at the lab table. Seeing how this would not be safe for our AEV, it was decided to go back to the one small and one big blades.

Power vs Time Propeller Graph

The above graph is the Power vs Time graph for the propeller configuration. It is shown that way three used the least amount of power, which was just the one normal propeller on each motor. The design that used the most energy was a split between way 2 and 4. The group made an executive decision that way 4 was a dangerous way to go with the two big propellers on each motor as it would become a safety problem. Looking at the above graph, the group decided to go with way 2 which was one small and one big propeller on each motor.

The above graph is the Power vs Distance graph for propellers. This graph makes it obvious that the bigger propellers are much better than the one small one. The propeller configuration that was the best in terms of going the furthest with the same code and power is the last way. Since the group decided to discard this propeller configuration, the next best way is the one small and one big propeller on each motor. Looking at this graph only, the way two would be picked to go further with in this AEV testing.

After the trial configurations and looking at the graph, the group decided the best trail would be trial two with the two blades on each motor, one small and one big. Continuing with this set up, they are going to need to ensure that this will not be a safety issue for the later labs.