Client
- ArtCenter College of Design
Date
- January - April 2017
Key Deliverables
- Rubberband-Powered Car
My Team
- Azeez Alli - Grad Industrial Design
- Tim Ho - Undergrad Product Design
- Alex Hans - Undergrad Product Design
THE MISSION
Since 2006, ArtCenter College of Design has hosted the annual “Formula Elastic” competition, an international race featuring remote-controlled cars powered by the energy stored in 16 ft rubberbands. Originally envisioned in 1986 by Gaylord Eckles, a professor of transportation design, the race takes place on the paved sidewalks of ArtCenter’s sculpture garden and is composed of three events: a 136-foot drag race course, a 322-foot figure eight course and a 228-foot hill climb.
The challenge: design and build a bespoke racecar propelled solely by the energy in a 16 ft rubberband with only two remote-controlled servos allowed for steering and braking.
"How can you design, build and race a car from scratch?"
THE APPROACH
Building the concept
The key to designing a cutting edge racecar is iterating on foundational designs from previous years and incorporating new and emerging technologies. In practice, we created simplified prototypes that established a functional baseline before refining qualities such as weight and power.
More advanced prototypes were driven by new manufacturing techniques, such as 3D printed carbon fiber, which is not only lighter and stronger than ABS plastic, but can also produce complex geometry rapidly at low cost.
With a goal of innovating on existing technologies, after building a successful prototype with single motor we redesigned the car from the ground up to incorporate our experimental double-drive and tweels.
The final step was bringing it all together and fatigue testing by running as many test laps as possible.
THE RESULTS
Introducing the Prometheus Racer, a rubberband-powered remote-controlled racecar. Prometheus features a dual-wound motor and wheels with integrated suspensions to push the limits of elastic car racing.
