Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Completion: Mission Possible (P1)

(new format for titles, woo)

Anyways, here we are. Albeit it a bit late, I believe a completion post is required for our most labor intensive project: our Mission Possible device for Science Olympiad.

Quite literally, it is the most over-engineered, hand built, scientific, unreliable... 90 second timer.

Does a 90 second timer deserve all of those descriptors? You can decide that for yourself one you see the actual thing.

First, some information:

Time spent: ~168 hours
Cost: ~$150
Primary material: wood
Secondary material(s): LEGO, simple electronics, electric motors, screws, WIN
Primary purpose: Autonomously complete a sequence of tasks in a specific amount of time.

Design objectives:
Win Science Olympiad competition - FAIL
- Regional Competition - 3rd place
- State Competition - 12th place
Provide design and engineering education - WIN
Incorporate hand built mechanisms - WIN
Score the highest amount of points possible - WIN
- all highest point tasks completed
- longest time for sand timer running
- block stacking device win
- customized features (custom built fan, bottle, motor system)
Impress the Judges - WIN

Personally, I have to say I'm disappointed that we didn't get anything for our efforts, but in the end, I know that, with the amount of hard work we put into building this thing, we won that competition (we could have).

To follow in part 2: build pictures, maybe video links, task descriptions