Next comes the building of the refined prototype. In our case, this is the final prototype, but only because of time restrictions of the semester. In a real world setting, one might continuously build prototypes to keep improving the product with more testing and modifications of the design. We used primarily laser cut acrylic and delrin, as well as 3D printed PLA parts for this prototype. We also made use of wood and steel shafts, and the provided motor kit with battery.

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My biggest take away from the build was the need for using stronger materials when in contact with the motor. To cut costs, my team had opted for wooden shafts instead of metal initially. We began to iterate the design and switch more and more of them to metal that required it. One wood shaft remained for the competition, which we thought did not have too much force on it. This proved fatal however and snapped during the race. Should this not have happened, I believe we would have fared better in the race. To prevent this from happening, further testing could have been completed in the terrain conditions to better mimic race conditions.

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Wing Mechanism: The final wing prototype was not too different than the initial idea. The dimensions of the links were altered slightly to prevent interference from the wheels, but I believe my precision early on allowed this idea to come to full fruition without too many changes. The largest change was in the front and back spacing between the left and right wings, as discussed in the ideation section of this website. I also believe that the initial goal of creating lifelike movement from the wings was very nearly reached. One slight difference there would be in the speed of the wings, which could have looked even more realistic if slightly reduced. This was unfortunately a change that could not be implemented in the time allowed, due to a need to change gear ratios and therefore the entire chassis would need to be altered. To prevent the need for this, more calculations of the wing speed could have been completed alongside the walker speed calculations to understand the relative velocities.

Assembly of final Prototype was completed by the Evan Wahl, Tommy Penicook, and John Hutchinson

Photos taken by Evan Wahl