Week 3: Fan Design

This week, the group worked to create an efficient and effective extinguisher design.  In the lab meeting for this week, research was done to determine the most effective type of extinguisher.  Some options that were looked at for the design were fans, misting devices, buckets, water guns, and carbon dioxide canisters.  It was decided to incorporate a LEGO motor to construct a fan in order to extinguish the fire.  It was thought that this would be the most compatible with the lego robot and the most reliable way as a water gun or mist could misfire and miss the fire (no pun intended) completely.  Below are two pictures of our LEGO fan:

 An intricate system of gears was created to greatly increase the speed of the motor. Without this the fan blade would not spin fast enough to put out the candle. The long lego piece shown above is only tentative. The final design will have either a fan blade taken from a handheld fan or one fashioned from appropriate material.

In addition to the blade, research was conducted to find different infrared sensors to use on our robot to sense the flame, as the light sensor could be ineffective because a flame would not give much light in comparison to the ambient light in the room.  An infrared sensor would be very effective and would only cost us around $50, so it is definitely worth the investment.  The group will decide on one of three that we found and order it this week.