Murlin Trebuchet Case Study

Murlin Trebuchet

SUMMARY
Murlin Tebuchets are lightweight, transportable, and very efficient.  The advantage of that is that you can fling a projectile far distances using very little counterweight.  This project is an engineering masterpiece and that is why I want to work on it.

CASE STUDY #1
Rating (7 /10)

Diagram of Murlin Trebuchet
http://www.behance.net/gallery/The-Murlin-Trebuchet/10601767

 Positives:

• It has a video, step by step
• Many, many photographs

Negatives:

• Dimensions are vague
• No specification of hardware (pulleys, bearings, release pins, firing mechanisms)
• No (Content) Most important Dimensions, weights, mass ratio and range are not given in text.
• You have to watch the video to know how to build it

http://www.behance.net/gallery/The-Murlin-Trebuchet/10601767

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CASE STUDY #2Rating (10 /10)

Diagram of Murlin Trebuchet
https://etown.digication.com/kaylee_werner/Trebuchet_Project

 

Positives:

• It has a video, step by step
• Many, many photographs
• Dimensions are vague
• Specification of hardware (pulleys, bearings, release pins, firing mechanisms)
• (Content) Most important Dimensions, weights, mass ratio and range are given in text.
• Results shown

Negatives:

• None

https://etown.digication.com/kaylee_werner/Trebuchet_Project

 

 

 

 

 

SumoBot

Sumobot

Mike Desmond

Winning bot

Our bot

Our bot

The project requirements were to build a robot vehicle that can have a brain attached to it that will be able to make it around a course in the hallways.  It had to be as fast as possible to beat other teams and had to be precisely crafted in order to maintain stability and accurate steering.  We chose to mount the motors and wheels at the end of the given wood piece, and the roller bearing wheel in the front with the brain and batteries in the middle.  This would give us the option to have either side the front, so we could experiment which was better - for the powered wheels to push the rest of the bot, or for he wheels to pull the rest along.  Groups 1 and 2 finished, but not groups 3, 4, and 5.  Group 1 was 2:24 and group 2 was 2:50.  The overall winning bot was very fast because it had a wide wheelbase, was assembled carefully, and had a great gear system.  Unfortunately, our group's bot was unable to make it around the track since it couldn't go very fast, and couldn't go straight or left because it kept going right.  What I would do to improve this would be to get smaller wheels, maybe add a gear system, and possibly make the rear wider so that the weight can be placed on the wheels.

Fastener

Art Structure

Mike Desmond

 

Rubber Band Fastener

Our groups design

Our fastener was the rubber band.  We designed and layed out the structure with the pieces, and then designed how we would connect and hold everything together.  We made up a system where we cut grooves in the sides of the wood where the rubber bands would hold, so that they would stay in place.  The rubber bands would hold the pieces of wood together, and the rubber bands would be held in place by the grooves.  When we noticed weak spots, we added more rubber bands to increase the strength and hold the structure together more securely.  Sean's idea was to make a field goal post, so we designed it.  We experimented with the structure so that it could be held together in the most secure way, and finished pretty quickly.  We could've worked more to make it more advanced but had no more ideas and the rubber bands limited our creations.