One problem facing many people in urban areas is a lack of transportation. Despite living in population-dense areas, citizens do not have access to regular food nor transportation to work which may be too far to reasonably walk to. In order to solve this problem, Koffolt Laboratories has been tasked with designing advanced energy vehicles as part of a monorail project to transport people to and from these isolated urban areas to areas where they can work and purchase goods to fulfill their needs.
A map highlighting these isolated urban areas, sometimes called “food deserts”. (Credit: Columbus Underground)
Mission
Team R’s mission is to develop the most energy-efficient advanced energy vehicle possible while also remaining within the budgetary constraints. The higher priority is keeping energy usage low, as a higher price due to implementing the design would pay itself off over a period of time via savings from costs.
Approach
To actually execute this plan, the preliminary designs and Arduino code to meet the starting and stopping procedure of the final test will be complete by February 1st. From there, it is hoped to have a working prototype before February 21st. Testing will occur after February 21st until our prototype design is deemed good enough, in which case the team will begin looking into how to make the design even more efficient while also limiting safety concerns that may arise in doing so. Actual runs will be limited to avoid going over budget, given that each run will incur significant costs; the team will attempt to focus more on calculations and theory and only run the car on the actual track when it is felt absolutely necessary.
Key Areas: Contains the team’s current areas of interest in the project.