Raiders of the Lost Can
29th Annual Engineering Design Competition
Tuesday, March 11, 2014, 1:00pm, Brown Gym Basketball Court
The Mission
The fundamental challenge of engineering is solving problems while meeting basic constraints. This year ME72 students formed teams to design, build, and operate, under manual and/or autonomous control, one or more air or ground vehicles that can:
- Autonomously (not under direct radio control) retrieve their empty soup can from their restricted zone, one of two four-foot cubes near the opposite basketball hoops
- Place their can nearest the center of a five-foot platform in the middle of the court
- Prevent the opposing team from placing their can on the platform
The team whose can is closest to the center of the platform at the end of the heat wins.
The Challenge
- The double-elimination competition is divided into rounds. Each round consists of 4-minute heats among the remaining teams, where a heat consists of a head-to-head contest between two teams. After two losses, a team is eliminated from the competition.
- Access to the platform is either by climbing steeply inclined ramps or by air. One pair of ramps is covered with steel sheeting, while the other pair is covered with wooden cleats. The ramps are inclined at an angle that makes preventing slipping difficult.
- A team’s vehicle may not enter the opposing team’s restricted zone while the zone contains the opposing team’s can
- Vehicles may block or upset opposing vehicles, but may not inflict intentional damage.
- Vehicles may steal the opposing team’s can.
2014 Sponsors:
Photos by Bob Paz
| Team Name | Team Members |
|---|---|
| 40 Pc Chicken McNuggets [Winner] |
James Bern
Monica Enlow Justin Koch Matthew Queen |
| Avengers |
Erin Evans
|
| Black Widow |
Harry Golash
Hima Hassenruck-Gudipati Galina Malakhova |
|
Cunning Stunts
|
Joseph Greef
Sean Keenan Shalini Majumdar Harrison Miller Brandon Robinson |
| Fellowship of the Can |
Amir Abdolrahim
Keshav Amla Wilton Liano Alejandro Sanchez |
| Soup Nazis |
Christopher Culpepper
Trisha Guchait Ashley Lo Juan Ocampo |