Research

What to do

• First, you’ll need to make a Requirements List for your build.

  • 1. Go through and list everything that your build needs to be able to do, from start to finish.

    2. For example: “Needs to launch candy about 5ft” or “Needs a trigger (to fire on demand)”

    3. You should classify your requirements as Essential or Non-Essential to know which requirements you absolutely need and which you can do away with if you need to.

• Next, write down the different design options you can use to meet your requirements

  • 1. Explore the different design options for powering mechanical machines: springs, pneumatics, motors, or gravity.

    2. Go through your list of requirements one by one, starting with the most important.

    3. First, look up any scientific background information that relates to the requirement.

• Then, write down some ideas for how to accomplish the requirement in your build.

  • 1. • For example: “The trigger can be: 1. A mechanical wire, 2. An arcade button, etc.”

       • Feel free to sketch out your ideas as you are exploring.

    2. You can do an internet search to find some more ideas, but it’s best to look up examples that are similar but not identical to your idea, so that you’re not biased by how others have solved the same problem you are solving.

    3. Sometimes, you might want to run an experiment to better understand your requirement. In those cases, keep track of the experiments you want to run.

    4. For example: “If the requirement is ‘Accurate 50% of the time’, I may want to run an experiment to determine the optimal distance, launch angle, and speed.”

• Once you have your design options, run experiments to help inform your design

  • 1. For each experiment on your list (from the previous step), run the experiment to inform your design and answer any questions you have:

       • Define your dependent and independent variables, gather the materials you need, run the experiments, and then analyze the results.

       • When helpful, you can use your slow motion camera on your phone.

Information: Speed calculations from slow motion video

• The most common video format is 30 frames per second.

  • 1. - change the slow motion video recording speed

• Two methods of timing:
  
  To determine the time it takes for a certain action to occur, use the formula given below.

  • 1. Start to Finish (Start timing when the front of the object reaches a "start line" and stop timing when the front of the object reaches the "finish line")

    2. Front to Back (Start timing when the front of the object passes some "start line" and stop timing when the back of the object reaches the "start line")

    3. After getting both your distance and time, use the equation below to determine speed.

For example: Based on a 240 frames per second filming speed

• • formula to determine the speed in mph: (5.4 * distance (ft) / slo-mo time (sec) = speed in mph

  • for the slo mo time scroll through the timeline that appears below the video

• Based on your findings, select the most promising design

  • • • 1. Next, decide which design is the most promising.

        2. You should ask yourself which design option will meet the requirements, deliver on the story, minimize build time, and meet all your other practical and financial constraints.

        3. At this point, it might be helpful to do some sketches of the different design options to further explore how they would work.

        4. If helpful, you can try your ideas hands-on with physical objects (i.e. “Not sure if a rubber band can launch an egg? Try it out”). This isn’t meant to be a prototype (you’ll build your prototype in the next project), but you can create small proofs of concept if it helps you during the design exploration process.

• When you’ve settled on a design path, purchase or order your tools and materials

  • • • 1. Now that you have selected your most promising design, you should make a list of all the tools and materials you’ll need for creating a prototype.

        2. Once your list is finalized, pick up, gather, or order your materials.

        3. You can get your materials from anywhere: the hardware store, around your house, thrift stores, online, etc. Everything is fair game.

        4. For online, you can check out McMaster-Carr, Amazon, or Pololu.

        5. Make sure to pick out a little extra when it comes to materials, so that you have room to keep working if something breaks or you need an extra part.