Embedded Files
Boat
Top Level Design
The goal of our mechanical design was to build an RC Boat that would be able to compete as both hunter and prey in our final competition. To do this we needed to make our boat easily maneuverable and capable of popping balloons with its biting mechanism. Our strategy involved three sections of our boat: the hull, the front BYTER, and the back storage.
As prey our boat needed to be able to out run and maneuver around hunter boats trying to pop our balloon. Our team decided to go with a 3 hull and 2 motor drive. This made us capable of easily turning and driving backwards.
As a hunter our boat needed to chase after prey and pop balloons attached to the back of these boats. To ensure we would be able to reach prey balloons we went with a wide front BYTER design.
All of our main electrical components were stored in the back of the boat in a water tight container. The back of our boat mainly served as an area to store all of our electrical components and a place to mount our balloons.
Final Assembly
Rendered Images from Fusion 360
Hull and Drivetrain
Our boat had a 3 hull design to allow for more stability and a wider front area to mount our BYTER. This design allowed us to mount our motors further from the center of the boat giving us tighter turn angles.
BYTER
01618750a0204357adbf7d4ba125f7b1.movThe BYTER was our critical component. The BYTER was a spring loaded, multilayered dinosaur head with sharp acrylic faces. The individual faces were laser cut from 1/16" acrylic sheets and fit together using 2 aluminum rods with spacers to keep the faces equidistant from each other. Our pivot point was mounted to the two side wanna of the front of the boat at a height of 20cm, equal to the height of center of mass of the balloons. The two red side faces had holes for bolts which acted as mechanical stops ensuring our BYTER could only move 90 degrees. The spring loaded mechanism was composed of 4 servos. 2 of the servos acted as spring extenders which pulled two springs to create the force needed to pop balloons. These springs also helped reset the BYTER by pushing the faces back to an upright position after a successful bite. The other two servos were mounted to the side walls, these motors locked the faces in place allowing the springs to be extended without the BYTER moving. When the BYTER was ready to bite, the locking servos would release their arms causing the BYTER to rotate 90 degrees quicky with enough force to pop balloons.
Back
Our boat needed to house multiple electrical components and mount a balloon at its rear. To accomplish this, the back of our boat was designed to be open to help store the electrical components in a water tight container. The top cover contained the power switch, paired status indicator and balloon mount.
BOSYN
Top Level Design
The BOSYN is a controller module for the boats. each BOSYN had the ability to control any boat using the class control protocol. To achieve this our BOSYN had two main components: the SWYMCON which controlled motor speed and boat movements, and the CHOMPCON which activated the boat's BYTER.
Final Assembly
Rendered Image from Fusion 360
SWYMCON
The SWYMCON controlled the boat movements, had pairing and unpairing capabilities, and status indicators. The thrust and yaw of the boat were controlled by two slide potentiometers. These were then decorated to look like a brontosaurus and flare. To select a boat to pair with we used a smaller slide potentiometer, th useer had to move tthe sldier to the boat they wanted to connect tot and then click the pair/unpair button. Once the BOSYN was successfully paired, the red LED indicator light would turn on. When a successful bite from the BYTER happened, a servo would rotate a scaled down, 3D printed version of our BYTER face 90 degrees; it would also emit a T-Rex roar from the built in speaker.
CHOMPCON
b1e05045637a4978a406f77b1c82af08.movThe CHOMPCON was designed to be easily triggerable as it activated our BYTER during gameplay. The CHOMPCON was composed of 3 Duron sheets, two of which held a limit switch. The limit switch was the trigger indicator that told our boat to activate the BYTER. The third Duron plate was designed to look like Earth during the Jurassic Period. This plate hovered above the limit switch on spring standoffs. To hit the limit switch the user had to throw an asteroid ball at Earth. This action would also trigger a T-Rex roar to emit from the BOSYN.
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