During this test, we evaluated all the designs as compared to the reference design and performance. The members evaluated their individual designs. This was a very good time to look at all the important factors that we felt was important for completing our goals. The criteria we choose are safety, efficiency, weight, stability, and ingenuity. Safety was chosen because it should always be our utmost priority. Efficiency was chosen because this vehicle is supposed to be affordable and have a small carbon footprint. Weight was chosen because this vehicle is going to be suspended in the air so it must not be too heavy. Stability was chosen because we want the people on our AEV to be comfortable. Stability also improves upon the first criteria of safety. Finally, ingenuity was chosen because we value out of the box ideas. Once we established the important factors then we were able to establish which AEV ideas and designs we wanted to move forward with.
| Design | Safety | Efficiency | Weight | Stability | Ingenuity | Score | Continue? | |
| Reference | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | No | |
| Jamey | -1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Combine | |
| Zach | 0 | 1 | -1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | Combine | |
| Cam | 0 | 1 | -1 | 1 | -1 | 0 | Combine | |
| Troy | 1 | 0 | -1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | Combine | |
| Team Design | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | Yes |
Table D.1: Concept Screening Matrix
| Design | Safety | Efficiency | Weight | Stability | Ingenuity | Score | Continue? | |
| Score Weight | 30% | 25% | 10% | 25% | 10% | |||
| Reference | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 12 | ||
| 0.9 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 1 | 0.1 | 2.7 | No | ||
| Jamey | 2 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 15 | ||
| 0.6 | 0.75 | 0.4 | 0.75 | 0.3 | 2.8 | Yes | ||
| Zach | 3 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 14 | ||
| 0.9 | 1 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 2.9 | Yes | ||
| Cam | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 9 | ||
| 0.9 | 0.75 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 0 | 2.25 | Yes | ||
| Troy | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 15 | ||
| 0.9 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 1 | 0.4 | 3 | Yes | ||
| Team Design | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 21 | ||
| 1.2 | 1 | 0.4 | 1 | 0.5 | 4.1 | Yes |
Table D.2: Concept Scoring Matrix
Takeaways:
To score all of the designs it was decided to use the key features that people would look for in a vehicle, with safety being the number one factor. Then we looked at efficiency, or how far the vehicle can move before needing to recharge, as well as the weight which also has a significant impact on how the vehicle performs. Weight leads into stability and how well it handles on the track, and lastly, we ended with ingenuity. Ingenuity is the measure of cleverness, inventiveness, and originality. We wanted our final design to be something that no other group has used before.
After evaluating the scores of each of the member’s vehicles, it was decided to move forward with Troy’s design and the team’s design. Troy’s weight distribution ideas were incorporated into the team’s design. The team design cut back on weight which was very high in all of the individual member’s designs. We also used Troy’s idea to have the battery towards the front of the vehicle for extra safety between the front and the Arduino. To be as inventive and original as possible we designed new parts to be 3D printed, for a streamlined and aerodynamic design that is both unique and still functional. This activity made us feel really positive about moving forward because we were able to really narrow down which ideas we will be moving forward with and which ones we will be abandoning. It is always important to whittle away at the ideas and designs that are either of no use to the team or are above the means of the current team and objective. This also exposed the really good ideas that we may have overlooked earlier because we actually had to put a number on the design of each AEV. This will help us tremendously as we move on toward further refining the design.