This semester the team’s objective will be to create an Advanced Energy Vehicle (AEV) that will transport people from residential areas to areas of greater economic and occupational opportunity. This is a part of Smart City Columbus, and will travel on a monorail over the city to deliver passengers safely back and forth to their workplaces and residents. This will allow them to have a greater range of travel, which will lead to greater opportunities in the city of Columbus.
The constraints on this design are:
- The $500,000 budget. Some potential designs may not be able to be used as the budget constricts what can be done.
- Must be lightweight. The AEV must be lightweight in order to maintain efficiency and stay low cost, and must not have too many extra parts added.
- Needs to transport people quickly. Many people who will be using this form of transportation are going to be traveling to and from work and therefore must move quickly.
- Must be stable. If the vehicle is not stable, it could be a major safety concern for everyone riding it.
The team worked throughout this project to create and AEV that follows these constraints and fulfills the main goals of the overarching project. The vehicle remained lightweight as all unnecessary parts were removed and no new parts were added. The main goal focused on throughout the project was the speed of the AEV, so many tests were done to determine which type of propeller and placement of the propellers would move the vehicle fastest. Once this was determined, these propellers and placements were used and different types of braking techniques were used when testing to see how fast the AEV could go while having to stop during performance testing. Finally, the vehicle’s stability was always good as each side of the AEV was balanced since there were not many extra parts added to it.
The Final AEV Design