These are the SolidWorks design files and other submitted material for a project in Yale's Undergraduate Mechanical Engineering program (specifically for MENG 185 - Mechanical Design). The project was completed over the course of spring 2016. All files are posted here under fair use and all credit for the assignment and associated administrative files goes to the issuing department.
- tl;dr: I helped build a remote controlled car out of stuff you really shouldn't bother building a remote controlled car out of. But it drove pretty ok, I guess.
The goal of the project was to construct a remote-controlled vehicle using laser-cut delrin, aluminum rod, plastic gears, toy-car-like-tires, and 3 motors from power screwdrivers. It underwent testing on an obstacle course that involved: pulling a 7kg block of lead up a 45 degree slope, navigating over rough terrain, traversing through a tunnel, making a tight turn, and weaving through a set of cones. Thus, the specifications of dimension, manuverability, and power were had to be optimized for. For example, plenty of torque could be achieved with the maximum number of motors and gears, but this constrained the vehicle in other capacities. Materials were a constrained variable--a specified budget for gears, number of motors and wheels, and supply of rod and delrin could be used in the final design. Calculations were done to ensure correct gear ratio for proper torque, ideal dimensions for combating obstacles, and other variables.
Overall the project was a success--"The War Rig" was able to complete all obstacles save the block towing (this specification was later concluded to be unfair for the power of the motors which were given in the year the experiment was conducted--even with 3 forward-facing motors and optimal gear ratios, this was a challenging feat). It came out second overall in terms of raw performance in the class.
My personal contributions include: designing the chassis to maximize stability while conforming to dimensional constraints (yes it looks goofy, but it works!), designing external set of chassis walls to protect the gear train and stabilize the axles (taking the vehicle from immobile to driving), testing the power of the motors and calculating the appropriate gear ratios to achieve estimated power, much machining and finagling to get parts to fit together, and writing the majority of the final report.