P90 - LEGO NXT Project 1 - Discovery Press

USD ENGR 101 Lab #1 – Drag Race Fall 2011You should spend 10 minutes or so examining the NXT components. You won’t be using thecontroller or the sensors this week, so you should focus on the wheels, axles, gears and connectors. How canyou combine these items to make a vehicle? The Appendix summarizes some principles of LEGOconstruction and has notes on gears, but there are many ways to build things with these elements.DESIGN CHALLENGE #1 – LEGO DRAG RACEChallenge:To design and build a LEGO vehicle that travels the greatest distance when powered only bya rubber band.Procedure:Phase I:• You have 30 minutes to design, build and test a rubber-band powered vehicle. The official rubberbandswill be supplied by the instructor. You may use only one rubber band and any items in theLEGO kit.• The winner is determined as the longest distance traveled. The distance traveled is defined as distancefrom the start line to the LEGO piece closest to the start line.Phase II:• You will have 15 minutes to redesign your vehicle. You may not begin to redesign until after allteams have completed Phase I.• No points will be awarded in Phase II.• Teams will compete in the reverse order of Phase I.Phase III:• You have 15 minutes to re-design your vehicle once more. You may not begin to redesign until afterall teams have completed Phase II.• The winner is determined as the longest distance traveled.• Teams will compete in random order determined by the instructor.Scoring:Your score will be based 70% on distance traveled (30 pts max for Phase I and 40 pts max for phase III) and30% on the overall creativity and aesthetics of your vehicle. The Design & Aesthetics points will beevaluated before the final round of the competition.Total Points available for this lab: 100Scoring Guideline:Phase IDistance30 pts - Winner!28 pts - Moved 15+ ft26 pts - Moved 10+ ft23 pts - Moved forward20 pts - Moved15 pts - Didn’t Move0 pts– No entryDesign &Aesthetics30 pts - Best design28 pts - Outstanding26 pts - Some cleverfeatures23 pts - Good20 pts - Nothing special15 pts - Downright uglyPhase IIIDistance40 pts - Winner!38 pts - Moved 15+ ft34 pts - Moved 10+ ft30 pts - Moved forward26 pts - Moved20 pts - Didn’t Move0 pts– No entryCLEAN-UPAfter you have finished with the challenge you should completely dismantle your vehicle, place theparts in the tote, and return everything to your lab instructor.2