final:

prototypes:

FRICTION as a friend.

In this assignment, Ivanna and I worked together.
We searched for references on the internet and we decided to make several prototypes with recycled materials from the shop. At the first attempts we designed a car with 4 wheels and another one with 3, the 4 wheels car had the problem of changing randomly its direction, because the pieces were not properly constructed. The case of the car with 3 wheels had good results with the direction problem, but by the low accuracy and high friction between its parts, it was considerably slower.
For the final car, we cut the wheels on the laser cutter in order to obtain more precision and less friction. Finally, the only problem that we had it was with the thread that wraps around the axle of the wheels on the back side, becouse this slid and couldn’t turn the axle in order to give the car an impulse.
The solution was to place doble contact tape on the axle, to produce enought friction to turn the axle without sliding, I think this was the key of the success.

Filed under mechanisms.