Design and Manufacturing of an RC Car

As part of my Machine Elements class, my professor asked us to design and manufacture an RC car, given a $50 budget (we could spend more out of pocket if we wanted) and the electronic components needed. The car needed to be able to complete three rounds of a track in a timed trial at the end of the semester. I was with a team of five other mechanical engineering undergraduates for this project.

We designed the whole car ourselves from scratch. Although I was not able to help my teammates physically build the car due to taking the class online during the COVID-19 pandemic, I helped in brainstorming designs and material/component choices for the chassis, drivetrain and steering mechanism. Our team ultimately decided to have a chassis that was essentially a simple, flat base to which all other components were joined; a drivetrain consisting of a timed belt-and-pulley system, and an Ackerman mechanism for steering the car.

I also assisted with theoretical calculations and analysis of the car throughout the project, including simulations of impact forces and stresses in the car chassis using SOLIDWORKS and calculating the car's maximum velocity and acceleration of car based on the torque-speed curve of the car motor and the forces acting on the car. Near the end, I took on a large portion of the final presentation and report that summarized our design process, calculations and results.

We did go somewhat over budget, purchasing additional parts for our designs, but the car was built and running smoothly in advance of the day of the timed trial. That day, the front wheels of the car fell off multiple times in the beginning, but our team was prepared with additional components to mitigate the issue. Our car ultimately ended up completing all three laps in the fastest time amongst all groups in the class.