Survival Challenge
Task #3
3/28/17
Group members: Tracy, Likun, Julian
First of all, the survival challenge is set to the world in 2201, where the Earth is completely wasted by human pollution and nuclear wars. As engineers, our job is to build mechanical machines that will help restore the Earth to the way it was before. There are 4 tasks that are available to us, but our teacher randomly assigned them to us via raffle, so it would be fair. Our group ended up with task #3, which was to build a machine that can transport all of their operating equipment from room to room, both horizontally and vertically. Some of the equipment is heavy, so the machine could move slowly, but it must be able to support the weight. Since our project will be a mechanical system, it means we won't be using motors or cortexes to program anything. Everything in this build will have to be all human-powered.
My first plan was to build an elevator with a rack and pinion so it could move things vertically and then have a conveyor belt to move the materials in and out of the elevator. However, we faced many problems with that mechanical gear system. First of all, we didn't have enough supplies. Second of all, I couldn't figure how and where to put the pinion gear that would move the rack. Wherever I put it, the squares I use to connect the pinion gear would always interfere with the elevator, so I had no way to fit the elevator in with the pinion gear. Therefore, I abandoned the rack and pinion and decided to use a chain drive instead. At first, I didn't want to use the chain drive because I was afraid it would be too unstable, but after running out of choices, it was the only idea I had left. The good news was that it was perfectly stable, so I could go along with it. The bad news was that it was much more simple and easy than the rack and pinion, so I basically wasted two days on a gear system that didn't even work.
pic of project bird pov
Task #3
3/28/17
Group members: Tracy, Likun, Julian
First of all, the survival challenge is set to the world in 2201, where the Earth is completely wasted by human pollution and nuclear wars. As engineers, our job is to build mechanical machines that will help restore the Earth to the way it was before. There are 4 tasks that are available to us, but our teacher randomly assigned them to us via raffle, so it would be fair. Our group ended up with task #3, which was to build a machine that can transport all of their operating equipment from room to room, both horizontally and vertically. Some of the equipment is heavy, so the machine could move slowly, but it must be able to support the weight. Since our project will be a mechanical system, it means we won't be using motors or cortexes to program anything. Everything in this build will have to be all human-powered.
My next step after making the elevator was to build a conveyor belt that connected to the wheel shaft, so every time the car moved, the conveyor belt would move. However, I encountered several problems with that. The first problem was that if I were to connect the conveyor belt to the wheel shaft, then the wheel would be too high to touch the ground. I had to find another way to connect the conveyor belt to the movement of the wheel shaft. I thought about a complex system with gears that would connect the conveyor belt on the side, but I solved the problem with a simple solution; turn the base plate over. I realized that it was just a tiny mistake that made things go haywire. The reason why the base plate was touching the ground was because I built the car with the plate facing down. The base plate had an extra layer of bars on the side, so those would scratch the ground. By simply flipping the plate over, my problem was solved. I was able to insert the conveyor belt into the driving shaft. There was no need for a complex system at all. What a way to complicate things!
