Robotic Car
Design

Brief

Design a vehicle to hit torque, speed, reverse, and durability targets set by the course, then prove it against them. The interesting constraint was meeting drivetrain performance while minimizing cost to keep the project under budget.

Drivetrain

I designed the gears and shifting mechanism for three operating modes: reverse, speed, and torque. I selected the gear ratios so one motor could meet both the course's speed and torque targets.

Controls

I wrote the majority of the robot's control software in the Arduino IDE, including mode selection, motor control, and the logic tying the shifting mechanism to the driving behavior the course events required.

Fabrication

Parts were produced by 3D printing and laser cutting, then hand-assembled and fitted. Fusion 360 carried the CAD and FEA work. The analysis checked that the components would survive the durability drop test, where a foam piece on top slides to absorb the dropped weight.

Validation

Every mechanical or control-logic change meant re-testing the affected systems rather than assuming the rest still held. The car met or exceeded every target on the rubric, clearing most by a wide margin, for a perfect 100/100 and recorded the fastest time of the semester.

Scoring

Tools