1997 ASME STUDENT DESIGN CONTEST
Design Problem

Many manufacturing and material handling applications involve moving objects from one place to another in an efficient manner. A company in your area has a particular application where they need to automate the process of moving a group of three parts from a platform into a package for shipment. In order to generate feasible concepts, they are offering ASME Student Members the opportunity of designing a system to meet the following specific requirements:

1. Design and develop a system to safely transport, without damage, two ping-pong balls (Halex 3-star) and one golf ball (Top Flite XL-regular) from the top of a platform to a box separated by a given distance d as shown in the figure below.
   
   
2. The outside dimensions of both the platform and the box are 16x16x32 cm and they are constructed from 1/4" grade 'A/C' plywood. The balls initially rest in 1/2" holes centered on the top of the platform 8 cm apart center to center. The golf ball is in the middle hole. The platform and box are placed on a 3/4"x4'x8' sheet of grade 'A/C' plywood which is placed on a level surface, 'A' side up.
   
   
3. The system is to be powered by a single Radio Shack Alkaline Enercell 1.5V AA battery (part no. 23-557, 23-552, or 23-652) and actuated by a single Radio Shack DC motor (part no. 273-223). No additional energy sources or motors are allowed. Also, any energy storage devices (e.g., springs, capacitors, potential energy) must end the run with the same or more energy than at the start.
   
   
4. The complete system must fit within the 16x16x32 cm box before assembly and/or placement. The system must be assembled from the box, if assembly is required, and put in place within 5 minutes. Once assembled and in place, the system may not be in contact with anything except the 4'x8' plywood, the box, and the platform.
   
   
5. The design objective is to deliver the balls over the largest possible distance in the shortest amount of time. The contestants are allowed to choose the distance d between the platform and the box. The minimum allowable distance is 50 cm and since the platform and box must remain on the plywood base, the maximum distance is 211.8 cm. The box and platform must be placed in the orientation shown in the figure below with the 32 cm sides parallel to the 4' sides of the plywood. They can be placed before assembly begins.
   
   
6. Once the system is assembled and in place, a start signal will be given and the system must deliver all three balls from the platform to the box within 1 minute. The transport time will be measured from the start signal to when the balls come to rest.
   
   
7. Once the system is started, no external communication, interaction, or influence of any kind is allowed - the system must be completely autonomous.
   
   
8. The winner will be the entrant with the highest score computed as follows: SCORE = d / T

   where:
   
   d = distance (in cm to the nearest mm) between the platform and the box. d must be greater than or equal to 50 and less than or equal to 211.8.
   
   T = time (in seconds to the nearest tenth) from the start to when the balls come to rest in the box.