The goal is to design a mouse trap car to travel the farthest distance.
The mousetrap cannot be physically altered except for the following:
a. holes can be drilled only to mount the mouse trap to a frame
b. the mouse trap's snapper arm may be cut and lengthened
3. Vehicles must be self-starting. They may not start with any additional potential and/ornkinetic energy other than what can be stored in the mouse trap's spring.
4. The spring from the mouse trap cannot be altered or heat treated.
5. The mouse trap's spring cannot be wound more than its normal travel distance or 180 degrees, and you may not use any intermediate stage pullies to transfer the energy from the spring to the drive axel.
6. The vehicle must steer itself and may not receive a push in any direction in order to avoid a collision.
a. holes can be drilled only to mount the mouse trap to a frame
b. the mouse trap's snapper arm may be cut and lengthened
3. Vehicles must be self-starting. They may not start with any additional potential and/ornkinetic energy other than what can be stored in the mouse trap's spring.
4. The spring from the mouse trap cannot be altered or heat treated.
5. The mouse trap's spring cannot be wound more than its normal travel distance or 180 degrees, and you may not use any intermediate stage pullies to transfer the energy from the spring to the drive axel.
6. The vehicle must steer itself and may not receive a push in any direction in order to avoid a collision.
Brainstorming
How we started
Before we started to create a CAD model, we first decided to figure out how we would secure the mousetrap mount and to secure our wheels in place.
Our first idea for the mousetrap was to zip tie it to a 3D printed base. For the wheels, we wanted to add a bushing between a CD and the drive axles to secure the wheel in place. From there, we would connect the primary components using a set of custom-cut plates and nuts/bolts (using custom printed brackets if necessary). Our second idea was to combine the mousetrap mount and the structure that supported the wheels together with a custom part, using the same idea as #1 for the wheels to try and use a bushing to utilize CD's as the wheels. After much deliberation we decided to go with idea #1 for its more flexible execution in letting us control the mousetrap mount and general structure independently of each other if needed. The decision for this was also influenced by us figuring out how we would build our first iteration, we started to look at what materials we would use while staying on budget, using the provided class resources like the 3d printers and laser cutter. |
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Prototyping
Going through the process
Final Iteration/Results
B.I.G.G.I.E. C.H.E.E.S.E.
With our final prototype, we were able to achieve the following distances in trial testing:
In regards to our goals, we are satisfied with how this mousetrap car performed with its consistency in self-starting and overall robustness in action. Here is a list of overall components in our final design:
In regards to the Bill of Materials, we had actually ended up using $0 in terms of the $20 allocated to outside-of-class-materials:
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How to manufacture
Below we have a link to the technical drawings of our components
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