Boatatron
By Charlie, Jake, and Francis
Introduction
Our project was to help clean up trash in aquatic environments with a cost effective and sustainable way. We decided to create the Boatatron. The idea was that using the old motor of a remote control car we could create a buoyant semi-aquatic vessel with the goal of collecting trash. We call it the BOATOTRON©. We faced many challenges along the way but in the end it mostly worked. We were inspired because we noticed that a lot of water environments were haunted with trash. This helps the world and us personally, because our objective was to help resolve the problems that we (humans) have caused.
Our struggles and what we learned
As many Maker Fair participants may know, having a problem during the making part of the Fair is nearly inevitable. Many of the problems were predictable, and even in our brainstorms they were pointed out, like waterproofing (already stated), moving fast enough in the water, the nets, and floatation. Having to convert a land-based vehicle to an aquatic vessel, waterproofing the vehicle was extremely hard. We used an excessive amount of duct tape (we could have used less to make it more sustainable) to waterproof it. Of course, we then learned that duct tape was not the stickiest when in water. So instead, we could use seals, and persisted meticulously checking for flaws in our prototype. Another problem was when we had to find a way to make it float. Charlie had previously gotten some old pool noodles, but we had to find a way to make it balance, so we asked Meyer for some ping pong balls, which he gave us. One large problem that we didn’t exactly solve was when we were cutting boards for support, and they were barely held together by duct tape. Fortunately, it still stayed together for the Fair. In conclusion, we were able to persist through the problems.
How it works
The original RC car had it’s back wheels as the motors and the front wheels as steerers. We removed all of the tires, and attached paddles to the wheels. We then took off the front wheels, and added a rudder on the steering function of the RC car. We then took the facade off of the car, and sealed it completely with packaging tape. After that, we added a plank of balsa wood to the bottom of the car, and put ping pong balls and parts of pool noodles on the balsa wood (for floatation.) After that we added strawberry cartons to the back (As nets to catch plastic). And finally, we added pocketed paddles to propelling.
Extra Information
Total Cost: About 15 to 20 dollars, we only spent money on the RC car previously, but we also used some of the school materials (duct tape, seal, craft sticks, and lots of water for testing) People that helped: Leo, Kian, Meyer, and of course, Ms. Hill. We cannot express our gratitude enough for these people.
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