Drive Up a Slope
How steep can you go?
Formula Off Road is a competition in which drivers compete on extreme terrain, including steep hills. The competition was invented in Iceland to raise money and awareness for rescue teams, who must overcome extreme terrain to save lives.
Can you think of any situations where being able to drive up a steep incline would be useful?
Here’s a challenge!
Design, build, and program a robot that can move up the steepest incline possible.
Think about how you can maximize its motor power.
Design, build, and program your robot.
Brainstorm ideas for solving the challenge, and work on your robot until you’re ready to test it.
You can split the main task into smaller subtasks, and brainstorm about questions like:
- How can gears be used to increase motor power?
- How does the need to move up an incline affect the design of your robot?
Coding Tip
If you’re using a wheeled robot, you can use the following programming stack to get you started:
Test your robot.
Record the trial number, incline angle, gear ratio, and motor power in a testing table. Make sure to leave enough space to record other observations.
Test to find the maximum incline your robot can climb.
Running the Test
Keep the following tips in mind as you test your solution:
- Test your robot on at least three different incline angles.
- Test after each adjustment to determine its effect.
Summarize your results.
Use your measurements to find the maximum incline your robot was able to climb.
Which aspects of your robot’s design and program had the biggest impact on its ability to drive up a steep incline?
How did you do?
What did you do well? Is there anything you could’ve done better?
Awesome! You’ve mastered the concepts of force and motion. It looks like you’re on top of things!