Hey guys, I am a Product Design Engineering student at Glasgow University / Glasgow School of Art, and we just got our project brief for this semester. In groups we have to make a multi-purpose vehicle that competes in a series of challenges, in a sort of 'Vehicle Olympics'. So, the challenges are:
1) Hill climb - 20m track up a steep hill. Simple time trial.
2) Tug of War - Vehicles will be tied back to back, on a Vaseline-covered area. First robot to get further, or out the ring wins
3) Rebound - Simple race across the studio, from one side, touching the wall and coming back to the start point.
4) Beauty Pageant - Each team has been given a word which their robot must convey, ours is 'Logical'
All we have been given is a GM2 Motor and some batteries, and we can't use metal or plastic for chassis building, but can be decorative, so cardboard and foamboard, etc.
Any help would be much appreciated and ask if you have any questions. Any suggestions for conveying Logic would help too ;) THANKS IN ADVANCE
As I understand this, you are best off with one large wheel, thin, shaped as a wankel-engine piston (semi triangled) - and with plenty of weight to keep it down.
Large wheel will give you speed.
Uneven "Triangled" willgive you the advantage in tug of war
Thin will go through vaseline (wide will slide over)
Mount the wheel on something like a Q - Let the big wheel drive the whole thing (the O), and have whatever dragging behind that you need (the ,)
Thanks for the help, but what do you mean by ‘wankel-engine piston (semi triangled)’? And do you think wide wheels would help for the hill climb? Thanks again.
A wheel with a large diameter goes faster. And the geared moters you have are quite strong / high geared, so get some huge wheels on, and be fast (But make them thin, so they have plenty grip)
Show us a photo, perhaps post as a "something Else" (See frontpage top left for link)
Oh, and I was thinking about the tug of war challenge, and had the idea of somehow attaching a water tank on the top, as after the initial acceleration, it will all slosh forward, then afterwards, provide some useful extra weight. What you guys think?
Water Would it have to be on the whole time, because that won’t work going up a hill, and if that is the case, it isn’t very ‘logical’. That would work if you were going down a hill.
