Ribbon Drive Racer
I designed and built this racer along with 3 other students for a classwide competition. The competition involved a series of head to head races with each team competing for the fastest time. The racetrack consisted of a short ramp followed by a 30-foot straight away.
Each team was supplied with a DC motor, batteries, and an Arduino. Students were tasked with designing their racer based on mathematical analysis, predicting race performance, and manufacturing the racer.
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Design Features:
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Rear-wheel ribbon drive
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Rod-in-spoke braking system
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Hog wheel position measurement system
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4 high-quality RC car wheels for maximum traction
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Ribbon Drive:
Using Matlab, I modeled our team's unique ribbon drive system. A spool of thin cellulose film was connected to the motor's driveshaft and coiled around the rear axel. As the racer moved, the axel coil diameter would decrease and the motor coil diameter would increase. This allowed for a large gear ratio with high torque at the start of the race that would decrease giving the racer more speed.
The unique design of the drivetrain and our consistent braking systems proved to be effective and our racer was victorious.
