The final AEV weighs 356 grams but is extremely efficient with an average of 127.27 joules needed to traverse 16.2458 meters in 53.94 seconds. The design outperformed all other teams AEV’s due to its direct drive system compared to a propeller drive system. It can immediately be seen that a direct drive converts energy to motion much more efficiently than a propeller would. During the majority of the multiple tests runs, the AEV only needed 25% power to move across the track. The power was boosted to 40% when picking up the caboose and when traveling through the gate with the caboose. Due to the difficult design of the direct drive, it can be frustrating to work with but when it comes to performance it is the way to go in terms of saving money in costs in the long run due to its low energy requirements. one can view the direct impact of the energy being used over distance and time in figure 1 and figure 2. The reasoning why run 3 has a higher energy output was to make up for breaking the static friction when picking up the caboose and a possible shift in the angle of the drive axle creating more friction while moving .
Figure 1: Graph of three final test runs of energy used over distance
Figure 2: Graph of three final test runs of energy used over time