College of Engineering Unit:
We are a team that rapidly created a fully 3D printed remote-controlled hovercraft to compete in the ASME IAM3D Hovercraft Competition. The hovercraft was designed to recover and deliver a payload through an obstacle course in the shortest time possible.
The hovercraft utilizes dual lift pads ("pontoons") which use centrifugal fans to generate lift. The thrusters in the rear are paired with ailerons to provide steering authority. A four-bar grabber is mounted to the front central body to grab the payload. The vehicle electronics are made up of off-the-shelf parts that come together to create a low-latency system that can be tuned to optimize performance.
Our primary focus was to evaluate if this competition is feasible for future MIME students. To do this the team designed the hovercraft and traveled to Charlotte, North Carolina to compete. At this competition we placed first among four teams and proved IAM3D is a feasible project for future capstone teams.
This team's main sponsor is the OSU School of MIME. Additionally, manufacturing services were provided by Corvallis 3D Printing LLC.
