Project Description:
Teams of 4 were given a month to design and build a hovercraft (designated SPECTRE) that communicated with a remote controller (MI6) via XBee24 Radios. The hovercrafts were designed to play a game that involved popping balloons mounted on enemy hovercrafts, while protecting their own balloons. The game details can be read here. In addition, all 12 teams in the class developed a universal communications protocol, such that all remote controls were compatible with all hovercrafts.
Our Design:Above all, our team aimed for an intuitive user interface and controllable hovercraft.
We chose Miyazaki's film My Neighbor Totoro as our theme. The remote controller was inspired by the movie's flying cat bus, and relied on actions everyday users are already familiar with: a key ignition slot, steering wheel, thrust pedal, and reverse shifter. The hovercraft was inspired by a large mystical creature called Totoro who floats around using an umbrella. Like Totoro in the movie, our hovercraft glided forward at a slow, relaxed pace, which maximized controllability. Since we valued precision over speed, our hovercraft automatically braked for a split-second when exiting turns to prevent unwanted drift. To pop balloons, an umbrella with sharp "rain drop" pins extended beyond the perimeter of the bumper. Our Process:After hearing a guest lecture on project management from Mindtribe Engineering Consulting firm, our team formulated the following design checkpoints. Each checkpoint emphasized working on a select few high-priority items and integrating project components as quickly as possible, rather than developing them independently.
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