To pass Performance Test 1, the AEV had to move from the starting dock, travel up an incline, trigger the gate sensor and stop, and then continue through the opened gate. The purpose of Performance Test 1 was to determine which of the two AEV designs that had been selected after the preliminary research and development stage would complete the MCR with the least energy and most consistency. To accomplish this, Division J developed a program that would complete Performance Test 1 and tested both the Group Design and Kenny’s design and analyzed the results.
For Performance Test 1, both the Group AEV Design and Kenny’s AEV design were tested using the same code (Appendix A). The group design used a pull method with the propellers, while Kenny’s design used a push method with the propeller. The following graph shows the data of power vs distance recorded for the two designs.
The group design was able to get up to the incline and reach a certain point where it would trigger one of the gate sensors, and successfully passed the gate. Kenny’s design, however, wasn’t able to get up the incline. The graph shows that Kenny’s design used more energy than the group design due to the fact that Kenny’s design had more area under its (red) curve than the group design. Using the graph, it was determined that Kenny’s design used 47.436 Joules (J), while the group design used 45.088 J.
Performance Test 1 – Code
motorSpeed(4,30); //Initialize both motors at 30% power
goFor(3.1); // Run code from previous line for 3.1 seconds
motorSpeed(4,0); //Initialize both motors at 0% power
goFor(1); //Run code from previous line for 1 second
reverse(4); //Reverse the polarity of the motors
motorSpeed(4,35);//Initialize both motors at 35% power
goFor(0.4); //Run the code from the previous line for 0.4 seconds
reverse(4); //Reverse the polarity of the motors
motorSpeed(4,0); //Initialize both motors at 0% motor
goFor(10); //Run code from the previous line for 10 seconds
motorSpeed(4,25);//Initialize both motors at 25% power
goFor(3); //Run the code from the previous line for 3 seconds