Individual Designs are:
These designs are based on the sample AEV [2], as well as tam member’s individual thoughts about what would be best for the design.
The initial sketch, created by the team is:
The team arrived at this design by combining functional and most useful aspects of each member’s designs. This design is the most aerodynamic and lightweight, and calculations completed from each individual sketch were completed to arrive at this conclusion.
This is the final part created by the tram in SolidWorks. They had the part 3-D printed and are currently running test and practice runs to compare the new part to the original AEV. The part shows to be much lighter since it does not use as many screws and hinges.
The new, most current design is shown below. It utilizes this prototyped part, is very balanced on the track, and can move with as little as 35% power. It passed Performance Test 1, and is currently the working design for the team. It is lightweight, easy to assemble, requires few pieces, and is visually appealing.
The team decided to remain with this design as the final design for the vehicle. It is aerodynamic, balanced, and able to compete all transportation tasks easily. It includes a battery holder, and the prototyped part reduces the need for addition pieces; the entire vehicle is the SolidWorks part, the wheel arm (and wheels), battery, motors, and Arduino, with minimal screws. According to research, the vehicle performs best when pushing, rather than pulling. This vehicle is designed so that the motors are pulling when it is only the vehicle, and pushing when the caboose is attached. The capital cost of this vehicle is very low ($144,894; the second lowest in the class) due to the use of the prototyped part. The team received this part very early on in the process (due to the awarding of the grant proposal). Before the part was received, issues with the reflectance sensors were occurring, so the team was unable to get on the track (and therefore collect data) before this part arrived. Once the part arrived, reflectance sensor problems were solved, and the vehicle was assembled, the team shifted their focus to coding and advanced research and design. Since there were no prominent problems with the design, and the team felt like completing the advanced research and design tasks took precedence, the design was never changed. Since this design continued to perform well, it was never modified.
The only small changes made were related to propeller size and magnetic attachment. As discovered in advanced research and design 3, the larger propellers were significantly more efficient in powering the vehicle, so they were added in place of the small propellers. Additionally, a double-braced set of metal brackets was added between the propellers for purposes of attaching to the caboose. It is double-braced to reduce movement that may interfere with the wheels propellers when the caboose attaches to the vehicle.