Low Level Design

Vehicle Size and Specifications

The maximum size requirement of the vehicle is 11x11x11 and to
promote stability and structural support the golden ratio must be employed. The
golden ratio is 1.618:1 which then makes the ideal size of the vehicle to be 11 x
6.798 x 6.798. The motors and heaviest components will be installed on the lower
parts of the vehicle to improve stability and improve the torque that the motors will
be providing on the wheels.
Wheel
The vehicle will have three wheels with two driving/steering wheels and one
supporting wheel. The two wheels will be in the front driven by the motors and will
carry most of the weight. While the rear single wheel will provide balance and
support of the remaining weight.
The course that the vehicle must navigate had many inclined surfaces with
the highest incline having an angle ~8.5. For the vehicle to successfully overcome
the incline, the surface of the wheels must have a high friction coefficient as the
surface of the course is made of wood. The best material for the wheel surface are
materials with high friction coefficient with low weight. Rubber or sand paper may
be the best option as they are also relatively cheap. Since the wheels will be FWD,
the equation

RWD

1
LLc
h
+
Ltan ( ) L

(1)

will be used to find the required coefficient of friction with the final specification of
the vehicle.
Motors
For front wheel drive, there will be two motors that will drive each will
independently. This will allow for the vehicle to have more power per wheel and
rotate independently to allow steering. The left and right wheel will turn with
different speeds to change the direction of the vehicle. The motor specifications are
currently unknown however, they will be powerful enough to overcome the hill and
move quickly through the course.
The delivery mechanism will also require one to two motors depending on the
final design. For the telescoping chute, one powerful motor is required to deploy the
chute and then retract the extended chute. The crane arm mechanism may require
two motors to extend the two collapsed delivery arms independently. The spring
loaded shooting mechanism required one motor that will cock the shooting
mechanisms spring and gear assembly.
Speed
The ramps length is ~420 and has 2 different sloping hills. The vehicle is to
make 10-12 round in 10 minutes. Which means that the device must complete each
run in with 50~55 seconds. The delivery mechanism will take around 5~10 seconds
to deliver the ball so the back and forth navigation will take approximately 45
seconds. So its average speed will be ~0.5 miles per hour making the round trip.
Delivery Arm
There is currently three ideas for the delivery mechanism. The criterion for
these mechanism are all the same. They must be accurate, speedy, robust, and

simple. Accuracy is very important as a missed ball means that one full trip is
wasted, and the current delivery arm designs are focused on delivering to the
furthest bin. Not only must they be accurate but it must deliver the ball in a quick
matter to complete the run in faster time. There also will be a margin of error where
the vehicle is stopped on the delivery platform, so the delivery mechanism must be
robust enough to compensate for the error. And lastly it must be simple and not
over complicated so that each of the criteria may be met.
Power Source
To have a reliable source of power, the batteries must be easily exchanged
during anytime of the run. And using disposable batteries is the best option as a
new battery has its maximum charge and can be bought and stored with ease. So
the option of 13 disposable batteries must be employed.