During this lab, team discussed the various preliminary designs for the AEV for while also tinkering with the provided AEV parts to actually test designs. Although time constraints meant we weren’t able to physically test each design, we did come up with concept screening and scoring matrices for each design. In the following tables, Reference refers to the sample AEV design available on Carmen, and Designs A, B and C refer to the preliminary designs by Grant Gursky, Kyle Ackermann, and Rider Osentoski respectively, which can be found under Preliminary Designs in the Evolution of Design section.
Table 1: Concept Screening Matrix
| Criteria | Reference | Design A | Design B | Design C |
| Stability | 0 | + | 0 | 0 |
| Safety | 0 | + | – | 0 |
| Propeller Blockage | 0 | – | – | + |
| Efficiency | 0 | + | 0 | 0 |
| Aerodynamics | 0 | 0 | – | + |
| Total | 0 | 2 | -3 | 2 |
Table 2: Concept Scoring Matrix
| Criteria | Weight | Reference | Design A | Design B | Design C | ||||
| Score | Weighted | Score | Weighted | Score | Weighted | Score | Weighted | ||
| Stability | 0.1 | 3 | 0.3 | 4.5 | 0.45 | 3 | 0.3 | 3 | 0.3 |
| Safety | 0.1 | 3 | 0.3 | 4 | 0.4 | 2.5 | 0.25 | 3 | 0.3 |
| Propeller Blockage | 0.5 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 1.5 | 2.5 | 1.25 | 3 | 1.5 |
| Efficiency | 0.1 | 3 | 0.3 | 4 | 0.4 | 3 | 0.3 | 2.5 | 0.25 |
| Aerodynamics | 0.2 | 3 | 0.6 | 3.5 | 0.7 | 2.5 | 0.5 | 3 | 0.6 |
| Total | 1 | 3.5 | 3.45 | 2.6 | 2.95 | ||||
| Continue? | Yes | Yes | No | Maybe | |||||
In the end, the team initially decided to move forward with the Reference design and Design A, however, we have since chosen to go with a different design, which can be found under Preliminary and Advanced R&D Design on the Evolution of Design page.