Trebuchet
Design Brief
Teams must design trebuchets to launch raw eggs a specified distance. The trebuchets will be designed and built by the teams. Each team must provide all materials and use their creativity and imagination in their designs. The size of the trebuchet must be no greater than 4’x 6’x 3’ when disassembled. Each trebuchet must be equipped with a remote triggering device and firing safety.
Solution
To solve this problem, our team developed floating arm trebuchet to launch eggs with proficiency and repeatability. The trebuchet's details can be viewed in the photos and renderings below. The arm of the trebuchet lies on a track that fall vertically providing force to launch projectiles. Weight can be added to change the distance achieved by the trebuchet. The trebuchet we constructed was built solely out of wood and nails. Our trebuchet successfully launched eggs to the distance and contacted the target during the competition. The trebuchet was capable of repeatability, landing in the same distance range multiple times.
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During this competition, I learned important skills regarding both the design process and team work. Our team conducted research and brainstorming to develop the trebuchet design utilized. I learned of teamwork skills during the construction of our trebuchet. Team delegation is an important skill, and during the construction I held responsibility for the left side of the trebuchet while my teammates constructed the rest of the trebuchet. I also learned of the skill involved with the communication of the results of the design process. Our team had to communicate our results to a board of engineers during the competition. This presentation enlightened me to the communication involved in engineering.
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This is an image of the trebuchet our team modeled in Autodesk Inventor.
This is a photo of our team along with our completed trebuchet.
These are sketches of our trebuchet in my engineering notebook.
This is a bill of materials for the trebuchet our team constructed.