Mousetrap Car
Intro to Mechanical Engineering, Spring 2017
In this project, I worked with a 3 person team in an Introduction to Mechanical Engineering class to design and manufacture a mousetrap powered car. The objective was to navigate a series of obstacles in the minimum amount of time. Our team went through several prototypes and design reviews before settling on a final design that could quickly complete the course. Both the car body was laser cut from balsa wood and the wheels were cut from acrylic. Ball bearings between the car body and wheel axle decreased the loss of energy due to friction. Our design featured a lightweight body with large wheels in order to minimize mass and reduce the momentum lost from obstacles.
Isometric view of final design.
Side view.
Testing Rig
Schematic of “rumble strip”
The obstacle was an 8 foot long “rumble strip” with raised boards of various heights. Each team was given two trials to complete the course as quickly as possible. Our design utilized large wheels to keep a high center of gravity to minimize the speed lost when traversing these obstacles.
Prototypes
Several car bodies used in previous prototypes. Our initial design had three wheels.