ES 100 -- Design Project

SmartVehicle

Fall 2004

The Veco Toy Company is seeking proposals from engineering firms to design a smart vehicle. The winning bid should be able to furnish a prototype model along with necessary documentation. For this purpose, the company will sponsor a competition for all bidders at the end of the due date which will be announced later.

The purpose of the smart vehicle is to escape from a large square field track without using any remote control. The vehicle should be fit in the space of 8 x 5.5 inches but no height restriction. The track will be measured 48 x 48 inch and constructed by plywood with 3 inches high fences around the trackborders and black path line inside as shown in the following figure. The only opening gate is located in the middle of a side and measured as 6 inch wide. The company would like to see which vehicle model can run out of the track as fast as possible. The vehicle will start on two farthest corners from the gate and time will be measured. The best design award will be given based on the best average time of the two.

The following guidelines are provided for your consideration in the preparation of your design.

1)Meetsize requirements to fit in the space. No part of your design can exceed over the limits of the space.

2)Use whatever vehicle you can get. However, you can’t purchase a commercial robotic vehicle without any major modification.

3)There will be several sets of LEGO Mindstorm Robotic Kit available, and the company will be glad to let you borrow one.

4)Design a vehiclethat can go forward, backward and turn.

5)Construct your model that has no loose parts.

6)Total weight should not exceed 4 pound.

7)Learn some programming skills andprogram your vehicle.

8)Cost of material used is not to exceed $20.00 (exclude Lego Mindstorm if you use it)

9)Vehicle should be capable of making 1000 runs.

10)Simplicity of design

11)Ingenuity

Your design package should include following:

1)prototype of the vehicle.

2)complete documentation of the design (include explanation of how it works)

3)3D model in Pro/Engineer and complete working drawing (at least one component)

4)unit cost and analysis with sample calculation

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