Summary

The purpose of lab 011 was for the team to demonstrate that their vehicle was capable of successfully completing the goals laid out in the Mission Concept Review. The beginning portion of the lab consisted of the team making its final changes to the code and ensuring that the AEV was capable of completing the full circuit on the track consistently. There was one primary change that was made to the code during the beginning of the lab to help ensure consistency on the track. The team had noticed a tendency of the vehicle to stop early, so several marks were added any time the vehicle stopped so that the vehicle would no longer stop too early. Once the team was confident that its vehicle was consistently capable of completing the required circuit, a teaching assistant was called over to score the team’s vehicle during a full run. Although each team was allowed two trial runs, the team received a perfect score on the first run so the second run was unnecessary.

Takeaways

1. The team successfully designed an Advanced Energy Vehicle that was consistently capable of completing the mission laid out in the MCR.
2. The vehicle could have performed better with regards to energy usage of a code had been written that utilized a technique of applying high motor speeds for short periods of time to allow the vehicle to cruise.
3. The vehicle could have also saved energy if the 3-D printed body had successfully been printed.

Schedule