Principles of Engineering: 2013

Another project we did for our engineering class was we had to create prop race cars. We were simply given the task to create a car using only the motor given and then race them on the given day and try and get the best time. When race day came me and my group was able to win second place out of the six teams. Here are some pictures of the project.

For our car we saw it was a common theme that when you would try and turn and the car would flip over so we adopted a idea from are fellow classmate Sean Mulvey and glued coffee stirrers on the side so that when the car would try and flip over it would hit the sticks and would not be able to flip over.

Sean Mulvey at one point tried to attempt something and that was to try and make a car fly, even though the very popular show Mythbusters tried to do the same and proved the it was impossible (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHUsGFGhfmk). Sean still decided to try and was unsuccessful as you can see in the videos below.

Achievements Earned: 13
In our Engineering class we had to create a marble sorter. Our goal for this project was to sort 15 marbles (3 different types, wood, metal and color) as fast as possible. Even though our class was pressed for time my group was still able to accomplish the goal and we were able to sort the 15 marbles.

List of Achievements and pictures
1. Organize it!: Title you post and organize it by section in a logical manner

2. Brainstorm!: Provide at least four of your team’s brainstorming ideas for the design solution. This should include brainstorming sketches. Each sketch should include labels and descriptions for communication.

3. Enter the Matrix: Evaluate your solution ideas (4 minimum) using a decision matrix. Determine the best solution to the problem. Explain your rating system and share insight on why you rated your solutions as you did.

The way our rating system worked was that we ranked them 1-5 but you could only use a number once so their could be not ties and we also use yes/no answers. From this ranking system we should have gone with the first solution but we decided as a group to go with the second because we wanted to try and use the programming to actually sort the marbles.

4. Design Solution: Create a detailed pictorial sketch or use 3D modeling software to document the best solution, based upon your team’s decision matrix. Your sketch or 3D model should include a rationale for the design selected as the final design solution. Each sketch should include labels and descriptions for communication.

5. "I've Made a Few Special Modifications...": Document modifications made to your design during implementation. Explain the reason for the modifications and describe how the new design solution will solve the problem. "Story" is the split between expectation and outcome. Tell us a story regarding what your plan was and how it actually came out! Use photos and sketches to call out three changes. (Nerd points if you know where the quote for this Achievement title comes from)
This quote came from Han Solo

Our first design was to use a foam board to create a channel for the marbles to go doen but the problem we were facing was the we could not find a way to isolate the marbles to have them be read by the color reader.

So the way we fixed that problem was by using a pbc pie where we could feed the marbles through in single order and then we have two motors that create a isolated chamber for the marble to read and sorted.

6. Final Implementation: This section will showcase your final hardware and software solution. Include photos of your hardware and program. Call out at least three key features of your design that were significant to its performance. Report how your solution performed in the challenge.

One key features of the program is that all of them loop so that we could avoid the problem of trying to reset the placement of the buckets.
Another is that we were able to make it so that the second gate does not open until the bucket is in place so we had to find out the time it took to get into place and then incorporate that into the program
A third is that we were able to open and close the first channel before any other marbles were able to get through which required a lot of speed and precision but we were able to accomplish it

7. Final Implementation - Video!: Embed a video that showcases your solution in action!

8. Reflection: Adress the four feedback types that we use in our courses (+, -, ?, !). Solicit feedback from someone outside of your team as well.
Some questions to consider in this section: How well did you accomplish your objectives? What would your team do differently with your design solution and why? Do the results fulfill the problem statement? Provide a brief explanation of what you learned, the challenges of working in a design team, and the purpose of the design problem.

+ This project was good because it required us to use all of the skills that we have learned throughout the years we had to implement skills from programming and use our creativity to create the best possible set up to have the program and the design work together.

delta- what i would change about this project was the for our class we had a very limited time contraint and I felt that we had to rush through the project and was not able to create the best possible solution.

?-My question about this project is why we didn't do this earlier in the year.

!-my idea for this project is that we do it earlier in the year so that we do not run into the time problem we had this year.

9. Reference: Post a hotlink to material you referenced on the internet. Explain why this information is significant to your project.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4RFQ_weI_I

the reason that this information was helpful was because we were struggling in the beginning to figure out how to build it and so we just decided to model our design after the on in the video.

10. Process 15 marbles in less than 1:30 minutes.

11. Process 15 marbles in less than 1:45 minutes.

12. Process 15 marbles in less than 2:00 minutes.

13. Use at least one motor