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Stylized Text: Batt Mobile Rules.

Batt. Mobile Challenge

The Batt. Mobile Challenge consists of two parts–design judging and a double elimination race.

Design Judging

Each team must provide design notes for its car.  The design document is not a daily journal, it must be an engineering schematic.  Minimum requirements include: a complete component list for the vehicle, final specifications of the vehicle (body measurements, weight, gear ratio, drive type, top speed), scaled drawings, assembly procedures, at least three issues or problems encountered and solutions applied, and photos of the car and/or its construction.  The purpose of this document is to help the design judges understand the decisions made during the design and construction process.  These documents will not be returned to the teams, and parts of these documents may be published or disseminated to future participants.  Failure to turn in a design document will result in loss of points in the design portion of judging. 

Race

The head-to-head competition is an eight-team, double elimination event.  This means that a team must lose twice before being eliminated from the competition.  The racetrack is 20 meters long and 60 centimeters wide, set up on a hard, flat, smooth surface such as a tennis court and a non-slick vinyl surface is used for the track lanes.

Competition Rules

  1. The Batt. Mobile Challenge ‘kit’ contains a lithium ion battery (sold by Horizon Hobby), motor (Mabuchi 280), wiring harness, battery connector, battery recharger, and an A/C adapter. No other batteries motors or wiring harnesses may be used in the competition.  Students must use the unaltered battery, wire harness and motor as the only method of powering the car. Motors may not be re-wound or disassembled.  Only one battery and one motor is allowed per car.  The rest of the car design and components will be up to the creativity and ingenuity of the students. All cars must be designed and built only by the students with limited assistance from the coach, parents, mentors or other non-team student members.  An on and off switch may be incorporated into the car design, if desired.

  2. The vehicle cannot exceed the following dimensions: 20 cm wide, 40 cm in length, and 20 cm in height.  A 3 x 3 cm space must be left for the assigned car number (provided by the Florida Solar Energy Center at event check-in) to be applied and visible from the side, top or front of the body of the car. 

  3. The vehicle must be designed with a compartment to carry a payload of 1 full water bottle–a Dasani 20-ounce water bottle with the following dimensions: 22.5 cm tall, 21.5 cm circumference at the label, 23 cm circumference at the widest point, 6.5 cm diameter at the base.  The bottle may not be part of the vehicle’s structure.  Velcro, tape, or any other adhesive cannot be used to secure the bottle, however you may use zip ties, rubber bands or string to hold the bottle on the chassis.  The water bottle will be supplied at check-in the day of the event, and must remain unaltered.  The bottle can either stand up or lay on its side, however, it must remain in the vehicle for the entire race.  If the bottle falls from the vehicle during the race, this will result in a Did Not Finish (DNF).

  4. The lithium ion battery can only be recharged with the battery charger provided in the car kit.  Electricity to plug in the battery rechargers will be available the day of the event.

  5. A guide wire attachment, referred to as an eyelet, must be attached to the car.  Examples of possible designs are shown below.  

    Drawing of a square and a round eyelet.

    A monofilament guide wire will be no more than 1.5 cm from the surface of the track.  This guide wire will go through the attached eyelet on the car, serving as the steering mechanism, and keeping the car in its lane.  The vehicle must be easily removed from the guide wire without disconnecting the guide wire.  This is the only allowable method of steering the car.  No radio control is permitted in the cars.  The eyelet must be used for steering only and must be directly hooked onto the guide wire.  Any guide wire attachment or eyelet used should not support the vehicle (such as a grooved spool located on top of the car guiding the car down the track). All wheels must be in contact with the track.  The guide wire must be attached to the car throughout the course of the race.  If the car disengages from the guide wire, this will result in a DNF. 

  6. At race time, the vehicle will be placed behind the starting line and all wheels must be in contact with the ground.  An early start or push start will result in a DNF.  At least one team member must wait at the finish line to catch the vehicle upon completion.  Team members may not accompany or touch the vehicle after the start has been called.  Vehicles stalled on the track may be retrieved after the end of the race has been declared by the judges.  Students must not walk on the track.  Any car that does not finish in 30 seconds will be considered DNF.

  7. Repairs may be made to vehicles as necessary between heats. However, no extra time will be given for repairs, and the race will not be paused for repairs to be completed.

  8. Judges may inspect cars at any time before, during or after heats.