Blind Navigation

*fumbles around* Ouch! *feels around more* OK, this week, Bowser and Crash are in the dark. The machine they will build will have to navigate a course and stop on an X...without the team seeing where they are going. The team who gets their vehicle nearest the X, in a best of three match, wins the day. Since they cannot see out of their vehicles, they are given a map of the course with distances laid out for them. Only the captains (Crash and Bowser) are allowed to read the maps and there is a time limit so they will have to move swiftly and surely.

Bowser wants to take a camping trailer and attach a pallet jack to it. This will be large enough to house all of the team members and the various direction finding/distance measuring devices they will need to get to the X. The jack will allow for precise turning but measuring the distances and getting everything almost perfect. Precise building seems to be a weakness of Bowser.

Crash is aiming for a south pointing chariot. These were used 1000s of years ago in China. It involves a complicated gear system that will always point south, no matter what direction the truck is facing. This has to be really precise...the gearing ratios have to be absolutely perfect as even a slight discrepancy will throw the entire thing out the window. This might prove too much for Crash to build with junk parts.

 
Bowser's Team
Rich, Sig and Johnnie
Crash's Team
Mike, Rosanna and Kurt
 
 
Bowser is going for a pallet camper
Crash wants a "differential compass"
 
 
Crash will put his gear, and team,
in the back of this truck
Bowser's team has found a camper
to pack themselves into
 
 
By using this golfcart differential,
Crash hopes to make his compass
This pallet jack will allow Bowser to
make perfect 90o turns
 
 
Crash is having a hard time finding a
set of gears that will give him the proper
ratio to make his complicated compass
Bowser's team will make marks on this
bicycle wheel and use it as a device to
let them know how far they've traveled
 
 
A test of the jack shows that they
welded it in the wrong spot and
will have to move it so it will turn
By placing a horn in one place and
listening, they can locate where they
are with basic sonar
 
 
The forks of the pallet jack are dead
weight now and are removed
A pendulum should help them know
when they've turned...maybe
 
 
A contact on the drive shaft will complete
a circuit and flash this light every rotation
which translates to four feet of movement
The wheel, in contact with the
ground, turns the sprocket which
has the distance marked on it
 
 
As the build time comes to a close,
Crash and team button up their truck
next set of images
 

back