In the Engineering and Science Challenge, the task was to allow the car provided to push and/or pick up some styrofoam cubes that were in the track. There were two colors, blue and white. The white ones were those that were pushed to the end of the track, while avoiding the blue ones. After all of the white cubes were dropped at the end of the track, we were required to push all the blue ones back into the starting point. We were not supposed to push the blue ones into the end or any white ones back to the beginning. If we did so, points will be deducted. The maximum timing for each round is a whopping thirty minutes. Our team got an astounding 2.22 minutes in the first round! Thanks to Arun, our driver, we made it into the finals. Although we made it into the finals, our car started to malfunction. The car would not go the direction Arun controlled it to go and the left wheel was stuck, making it quite impossible to turn. The battery died on us thrice while on the track and the car would not go where we wanted it to. Through all these ordeals, our driver, Arun, still miraculously pulled it off in 15.18 minutes! Although we were the 4th in the finals, Arun still did an amazing job controlling a malfuntioning car.
DESIGN PROCESS
Alex and Arun brainstormed on the design, and they finally came to the conclusion that they would make a design, resembling that of a forklift. We glued a few ice cream sticks to the car and screwed in bottle caps to each side which acted as rollers. That saved us in situations in which the cube is against the wall. All Arun has to to was to ram the cube in. We also used a generous amount of glue to ensure that it could hold up to crashes and abuse. Though the final product isn't the most aesthetically pleasing, it is a very practical and innovative design.
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