Design and manufacturing I - ME250 - Self-Propelled Miniature Vehicle

Self-Propelled Miniature Vehicle Design and Manufacture
1. Objective
The objective of this project is twofold: to improve your appreciation of the capabilities and limitation of basic machining processes -- turning, milling, and drilling -- through hands-on experience with machines; and to exercise your ingenuity in designing, building, and testing a device that meets prescribed functional specifications using only limited resources. After the completion of the project, you will gain an experience in working as a team to solve an open-ended engineering design problem, and to deliver a manufactured product by a specified deadline.

2. Design specifications
You are designing and building a self-propelled miniature vehicle capable of climbing
an inclined plane in accordance with the following specifications:
(a) It must use only the supplied battery holders and switches.
(b) It must use only the supplied DC motors and gearboxes.
(c) It must not use off-the-shelf wheels, tires, rims, and/or treads, such as the ones for toy cars/tanks.
(d) It must have rims/legs (or whatever propels the vehicle) and chassis manufactured by you from the supplied or purchased materials.
(e) It must use only up to four C size alkaline non-rechargeable batteries as energy supply.
(f) It must not use adhesives (e.g., tapes or glues) to contact any surfaces on the test rig.
(g) It must not damage or otherwise alter any surfaces of the test rig.
(h) It must fit within an 12” X 9” X 6” space when it crosses the start line and the finish line.
(i) It must stay within the designated 12” wide lane during the climbing (can contact side walls) and must not cross into other lanes.
(j) It must be aesthetically pleasing to satisfy demanding customers

Each team's vehicle will be evaluated by means of a sequence of climbing tests on a special test rig, whose picture is shown. The test rig is an unfinished plywood board with an adjustable angle of inclination, divided into four lanes separated by side walls --- it is designed to test four vehicles simultaneously. The overall length is 4 feet (3ft between start and end lines) and the width of each lane is 12 inches. On each lane, there are five bolts, two plywood bumps, an acrylic top surface with an open slot in the center, and some round tips on the bottom surface and side walls. Note that due to the construction materials of the test rig, the lane widths can vary by 0.75 in places, and the side walls may be bowed.
The slope of the inclined plane is not specified a priori -- rather, you should design a vehicle that can climb a slope as steep as possible. Accordingly, each vehicle will be tested at the increasing slope angles 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, … The speed at which the vehicle climbs the slope is also a design target. Among the vehicles that succeed in climbing the specified distance up a given slope, those that do so in the shortest time will receive the highest score.