Counter Weight Trebuchet Case Study

Summary:






I would do a counterweight Trebuchet for this project.  I want to make it because it seems like a more simple one out of the few and it looks more likely to succeed rather them fail. It works  by using a counterweight a short distance from the pivot, to cause a powerful rotational motion which swings the sling up. I feel that my group would be able to create a very good trebuchet and may be able to add things to it to make it unique.










Case Study #1:

Positives

• This case study gave us the dimensions that they had used.
• They showed there entire process of what they did and how they did it. 
• They have very good pictures of the materials and the final product
• They showed a video of how it worked at the end.

Negatives:

• It looks like it would be to big for us to make in the amount of time that we have.
• They used things that we do not really have access to. 
• They had a hard time building the firing mechanism, so we might have a difficult time with that ourselves

http://www.instructables.com/id/The-Insensible-a-counterweight-trebuchet/

Case Study #2:






























Positives:

• It is a good case study because the people making it are also doing it for a high school project just like we are.
• They give each individual measurement for each part.
• They gave a step by step process of how they did it.

Negative:

• The trebuchet they made is more for golf ball and we might be using baseballs or lemons.
• Most of the images they gave were diagrams and not really pictures of them actually building it.
• It look a little small, we would have to make it a little bit bigger.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Girls-Bulid-a-Trebuchet/

Sumo Bot

 The requirement of the project was to create a sumo bot that could race around the hallways and finish the time and race them together.  We put a wheel in the front and two in the back.  We also wanted to use the integrated brain bot.  We thought that it would be easier to handle and make turns if it was a little bit longer.  We thought having one wheel in front would also make it easier to control. 
The Results:
1) RDJ- 0:51
2) John Deere- 1:11
3) Ronald- 2:24
4) ASAP 2:25
5) Bloody Mary(my group)- DNF

If we were to redesign it we would definitely make it lighter.  We made it to heavy and need to reduce it so we could gain speed.  We would also figure out a better way to use the wheels.  We had a very good design, but it was broken by someone in our class so we couldn't get it back to where it was.  We also need to straighten the wheels.  The wheels needed to be moved so they were even and we could go straight.  If we did this again, I feel if we did this again we would be very successful.