"That's so Raven", a bird-inspired bluetooth vehicle
Intro
Much of my junior year fall semester was spent in the design lab learning how to use new tools and iterating on my designs for my Introduction to Prototyping and Fabrication class. It was the first semester this class was taught as part of the new design department (Jacobs Hall for Design Innovation). Prior to this class I had little to no experience with any of the tools we used, including laser cutters, 3d printers, Autodesk software, acrylic benders, soldering irons, Arduino, etcetc...
The final project was to build a working vehicle that can traverse an obstacle, which includes an angled ramp and twists and turns. Above is the final product. My vehicle chassis is constructed with black acrylic, and the shell is designed using black mat board, and features two side curves. The edgy personality of the car inspired its name, Raven. Below are some of my initial sketches.
Circuitry
The first step was to ensure that electronics work. I prototyped with cardboard and masking tape.
I soldered my electronics together and stuck it on a body that I designed and laser cut out of econo wood. I ran into some issues while doing so. I didn't do a great soldering job on my first try and unfortunately overheated my nrf8001 bluetooth module. Chris, my instructor, didn't have any more so I was forced to use the other type. I was quite nervous about this because of the limited time I had and had to rewire my electronics, but it turned out to work fine in the end!
I designed the chassis to have a ton of holes, to lessen the weight of the car and to secure my electronics with zipties. The holes are also useful for wire management.
Designing the shell
Next, I began to design my shell. Below is one of my earlier versions of the shell, made out of Bristol paper. It didn't fit perfectly with the chassis at first, so I taped it to the chassis, and used a pencil to mark the areas that needed to be cut, and areas where the bristol fell short. Further down is an image of all the iterations, each with a minor adjustment from the previous version.
I designed the final version of the shell, cut out with black matboard. I designed a folding pattern for areas that needed to be folded over the chassis, and scored the areas that needed to be creased. As I learned that screws and glue are permanent adhesives and not ideal for prototyping, I used velcro as the securing method for easier removal and debugging. I also made sure to cut holes for battery wires, and the on/off button.
Acrylic Chassis
Finally, I cut out the chassis from black matte acrylic, and ziptied everything together. I secured a ping pong ball towards the anterior of the vehicle because it would constantly tip forward, causing friction. The ping pong ball helped reduce friction and help balance out the weight of the vehicle.
This is the final car.
