1/28/16
Physics
Mr. Yav
Jake Greenlee, Tom Nobal, Carlos Martinez
Summary
In this project we are building a mousetrap powered car that will accelerate very fast. The car will also hold and egg. The mousetrap car will be put head to head against other cars. The goal will be to destroy the other cars egg. While keeping our egg safe. We plan on gearing our car for more speed. We also may later add some defenses that pop up and weaponry to the car.
Table of Contents
Summary
Design Problem and objectives
Design documentation
Test Plans
Bill of materials
Task Chart
Safety and ethical consideration
References
Design Problem and objectives
The objective is to create a mousetrap car that travels fast and maintains its speed for a short period of time. Our secondary objective is to knock the opponent's egg out of their car. Our goal is to make a very powerful car that will provide sufficient defense and will possibly have an attack mechanism. In order to create a more powerful drive base we will need to keep in mind the length of our pulley arm. Because the longer it is the more weaker it is and the shorter it is the more power it will have. But the disadvantage with shorter arms is less distance. That's why we decide on a shorter arm but we are going to gear it for extra speed. We hope that the extra speed help level out the disadvantage that comes with have a shorter pulley arm. One problem that we could have with this design though is not having enough torque to spin the gears. We also plan to add a defensive wall that will pop out a specific amount of time after moving. As to how it will activate we still are thinking on that. As well as defensive measures we might also add an offensive measure. This offensive measure will be a mousetrap that will swing up after coming in contact with another car. This will in theory flip the opponent on their back making their egg fall. We believe that if we perfect all of these thing we will have the best mousetrap car in the lab, because it will be fast, it will knock the opponent's egg out, and it will have a defensive measure to defend the egg.
Design Documentation
Mouse trap car design :
Drivebase:
To run the car so that it will accelerate as fast as possible, we determined that a gear box would work the best to maximize the use of the single mousetrap. The gear system will be geared for speed, with a large gear turning a small gear.
The initial gear will be turned by the pulling arm mounted on the mouse trap. Based on information from the slideshow provided by Mr. Yav, as well as previous experience, a short pulling arm will give us the torque needed to turn the gear system. Work is being put into the gearbox, which then turns the wheels. To make sure the system is secure, lego parts will be used here, but the use of legos will be limited in the rest of the project. Wide short rubber wheels will be used for maximum traction and speed. For the acceleration test, the car will be light enough so that it can accelerate quickly, but for the joust, the car will be weighted down enough to resist ramming other vehicles.
Offensive measures:
For the offensive measures, my group and I decided quite a couple of different solutions to combat this issue. The first and most prominent includes another mousetrap being set off by the opponent’s car. The idea is to have the second mousetrap at the front of the car as to be set off at the time of impact. Hopefully, if all goes well, the arm of the mouse trap will hook up under the enemy car and flip it over. The second will be the inclusion of more mass added to our vehicle. Because of the principle, F = ma, our inclusion of more mass would add a greater force to impact the other car with.
Defensive Measure:
We decided that for a defensive measure we would add a barrier that pops up after starting to move. This will be powered by a mousetrap that will be triggered by the mousetrap that powers the drive base. The idea behind the activation is that the first mousetrap will have some sort of stick connected to it that when the mouse trap reaches a certain point it will activate the defensive mousetrap. One problem we have to keep in mind is the barrier hitting the egg. The barrier needs to be strong in order to defend against attacks. But it also needs to be soft in order to not damage the egg. Our heavy weight will help with defense because if we are heavier than our opponent we will take less time to stop. Because it takes less time to stop our car, the opponent will essentially act like a crumple zone.
Cost Analysis:
The total cost that will be in regards to our project will be an estimated $45
Human Factors:
If Applied with care, our vehicle should not be of any harm to any persons, however, if one were to carelessly apply pressure to any of the mouse traps, it is expected that they may suffer in some way. (Not clear on what the human factors entails)
Test Plans
Drivebase testing:
down hill launch
ability to turn wheels
on level ground from a standing start
Gears don't lock
With weight, car must be able to move
Defensive testing:
making sure hard stop works
make sure when defensive mousetrap is activated, the egg is covered and not damaged
activates quickly so that the egg is protected
Offensive Testing
Flips after impact
Activates
Attack does not result in damaging the car or egg
Testing on a smaller car for effectiveness.
Drivebase scenarios:
There could be not enough torque to move the gearing
Wheel spins too quickly and skids, causing us to lose power
Gearing system fails, gears not strong enough.
Different brands of mousetraps
Defensive system scenarios:
mouse trap stopped fails, crushes egg
cover is not sufficient to protect mouse
may not activate
Offensive system scenarios:
Doesn’t activate on contact with other car
Doesn’t catch under other car, and fails to apply a meaningful affect.
False trigger, activates early
Bill of materials
3 mousetraps, one powering the car, the other 2 for offensive and defensive measures 6$
lego parts (gears + wheels + supporting frames) ~$25 (taken from existing stores)
pipe cleaners ~$2
hot glue gun ~ $10
tape ~ $1
pencil/ sturdy stick ~ $0.50
small cardboard box ~ $0.50
Task Chart
-Finish design review- All members - 1/28/16
- Prototype gearbox- Tom Nobal - 1/28/16
- Testing gearbox - Tom Nobal - 1/28/16
- Test different gearing + puller length - Jake + Tom - 1/29/16
- Defensive measures prototypes - Jake - 1/31/16
- Offensive measures prototypes - Carlos - 1/31/16
- Getting mouse traps - 1/31/16
- Getting plywood- Jake - 1/31/16
- Assorted Materials - Everybody - 1/31/16
-Testing speed runs - Everybody -2/4/16
-Day of Acceleration competition
- Modify car for joust - Everybody - 2/5/16
- Testing offense/ defense - Everybody - 2/11/16
- Day of Joust 2/12/16
- blogger - Carlos - 2/22/16
- design report - everybody - 2/22/16
Safety and ethical consideration
The car is not meant to hurt human beings, it is only meant to damage/destroy other eggs, while protecting a egg at the same time. None of the spring loaded offensive or defensive measures will be able to severely hurt a human unless they do something unintelligent.
When designing the car, efforts will be taken to avoid injuring those that will be using the car or watching it.
References
Powerpoint provided by Mr. Yav
Experience provided by previous mousetrap car projects
Experience from robotics
Experience from theater tech
No comments:
Post a Comment