DifferenceMakers Convention Reflection

Overall, our elastic tank presentation at the DifferenceMakers convention went well. Our prototype was able to move, rotate, elevate and shoot as expected. The elastic tank followed a pre-determined path, rotated its barrel, shot the elastic band, rotated back to its initial position, and returned back to its starting point. Our initial problem we set out to solve with our elastic tank was geared towards education. We wanted to model projectile motion to help solve the problem of younger students not experiencing the interactive part of education. Through this resolution, we hoped to spark the creation of more models, such as ours, to be created to model other educational topics to help students learn. As the competition approached, we altered our problem solution to be a platform for various things. One possibility could be to replace the turret with a camera and it could go places a human can't. This could used for anything, from military use to general household use. Another possibility could be to place a sensor on the front of the elastic tank, so when driven around freely, it won't crash into a wall and break. This feature would work well with the camera. Initially, we had planned to use a Bluetooth sensor to control the elastic tank with our smartphones, but we were short on time for the competition. If time permits, we plan on adding on this Bluetooth feature, which will work great with the camera and sensor attachments.