After the completion and testing of the preliminary AEV design, Group F began focusing on the creation of an improved AEV design to correct the flaws of the previous design. As Group F obtained 3rd place in the Grant Proposal, we were entitled to a cost reduction of one-half for a custom part. After some thought, Group F decided on the part below.
Figure 1: The 3D printed part used as a base for the final AEV design.
The idea behind this design was to use two propellers, one at each end of the AEV, and to have the wheel arm pass through the AEV base in such a way as to bring the propellers closer to to the wheels in order to increase efficiency. So that the AEV could still be coupled to the caboose, an arm was added to the base such that a metal clip could still be added to the back of the AEV without interfering with the rear propeller.
Figure 2: The schematic for the final AEV design.
The final design and build utilized by Group F can be found in Figure F above. The design was fairly rudimentary, and relied on the positioning of the Arduino and the battery in order to ensure it was appropriately balanced. The same tests that were run on the previous AEV design were also run on this design to allow for an unbiased and quantitative comparison between the two designs.
Figure 3: A graph of power and distance vs time for the final AEV design’s test run.
The data shown in Figure 3 above displays the results of that testing. When comparing this data with the identical data set obtained from the previous design, Group F determined that the design utilizing the 3D printed part was both more power-efficient and faster. These factors, along with some other such as stability and safety, provided the basis by which Group F selected this to be the final design.