Toyota Technology Challenge 2011/12
The Toyota Technology Challenge tasked students with building a rover that was able to navigate an obstacle course as fast as possible.
A team of three of us came together after school one evening and decided to enter this cometition with 5 weeks until the deadline. We needed to design, build and document the entire project within that time to stand a chance at getting to the regionals, and with an initial design laser-cut and functional, we made it to the regionals.
With AC power lines running beneath the course under the shadow of British Airways's first Concorde at the Duxford Museum, our digital compass on which our algirithm so heavily relied was rendered useless. Nevertheless, within 30 minutes, a new algorithm was developed that led to a place at the national finals. The judges told us how to improve the environmentally-friendliness of our buggy by changing to a recyclable material.
The task was set, and we had 27 days to fulfil it.
Thus, we redesigned the buggy entirely out of aluminium, which presented challenges on all fronts, including electronics, where suddenly our motor drivers were not strong enough to drive the additional weight. We achieved this and off to the national finals we went, where we were awarded second runners-up. This project was one of the first introductions I had in engineering and had me hooked on delving further into the field ever since then. Indeed, the school invited us to present at the prestigious prize giving event at the end of the academic year on the project.
The occasional madness of the project is documented by 13 year-old me on my blog in part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4.