Testing
To ensure that the RC vehicles components will function as needed and intended, several different tests were followed. These included testing the RC vehicles acceleration, deceleration and speed.
To test the vehicles acceleration a distance of 20ft was measured out and the time it took to reach that mark was recorded with a stopwatch 5 total times and an average acceleration was determined. To test the vehicles deceleration there was a a line that once the RC car crossed the time would start being recorded till it came to a stop. Then, that distance traveled was recorded so that the average deceleration could be calculated out of 5 trials.
To test the vehicles speed a distance of 30ft was measured out with a tape measure in Hogue Hall. The RC vehicle will be timed using a stopwatch and data will be recorded to ensure a top speed of 40MPH was met (using the equation speed = distance / time).
After calculating the testing results, they were comparable to the predicted values. The vehicles acceleration of 7.25 ft/s2 is close to the predicted value of 7 ft/s2. The vehicles average deceleration of -6.90 ft/s2 is also not too far off from the predicted value of -5ft/s2. The top speed of the car is yet to be performed. Reasons why the predicted values do not perfectly match the tested results could be due to environmental factors such as wind and surface friction.
A testing error encountered: A slower deceleration than predicted, so the EVS was tuned to improve the brakes and thus improving the deceleration of the car. This error occurred while testing the deceleration of the RC vehicle in the spring, which was fixed prior to the competition.
Fig. 1: RC vehicle outside on cement ground, which is the surface that the top speed testing of the car was driven on.
Fig. 2: Hogue Hall - Testing site for the acceleration and deceleration tests.
Fig. 3: Hogue Hall - Testing site of the acceleration and decceleration tests.
Fig. 4: Hogue Hall - Each concrete rectangle measured 10ft in length. I stood with a stopwatch to start the timer when the car crossed that first indent around the concrete rectangle.
Fig. 5: Hogue Hall - The slight incline the car drove up for the start of the deceleration test.
Testing video: This video below is showing the RC car being driven on gravel to test how well the drivetrain deals with debris offroad.