HW 6

Low-fi vehicle prototypes

After doing some research, I was really looking forward to using omniwheels which are basically wheels that can roll in any direction. However they aren't available on Amazon prime, and are quite pricey...Below are some of my initial concept sketches

After sketching out my ideas I decided on three--one, which would be compact, have two DC motors in the back with a caster/pivot lego wheel in the front, similar to the wheels of a shopping cart. My second idea was to have an axel in the front of my car which would allow the car to steer by using a servo. My last idea was to have a simple, circular body with a marble caster in the back--this greatly reduces friction since it has only one point of contact to the ground.

Below are the laser cut cardboard prototypes, held together mostly by rubber bands and cake pop dowel sticks.

Above is my first vehicle. It has two layers held together with cake pop sticks and a pivot wheel in the front. It turned out after I laser cut my pieces that the motors didn't fit perfectly, so I had to make a few small adjustments using my handy X-acto knife. The idea behind this deisgn was that the pivot wheel in the front would turn in sync with the motor powered wheels.

Above is my second design. It is powered by two motors in the back and a servo in the front, which guides the direction of the vehicle. There are still a few problems with this vehicle concerning friction of the front wheels as the vehicle turns.

Above is my final design. Two wheels in the front, attached to a circular body, with a 3d-printed marble caster in the back. This design works very well because it is so light and the caster reduces the friction without using a third wheel. I'm leaning towards this design, but I will still have to test it out with actual motors.

Moving on from here, I'm leaning towards using a marble caster, a steering axel attached to a servo, and another servo that allows the car to accelerate.