Marble Racer
ONE STEP AT A TIME - A PROJECT OF FIRSTS
Marbles "walk" up this 3D printed project powered by a DC motor, only to enjoy a short ride down through sloped thoughs back to where they started.
3D Print
Sweep Geometry
Constraint-Driven Geometry
Electrical Spec
Designed and simulated in Pro/Engineer Wildfire, the Marble Racer children’s toy was created by my team (of four) as part of Purdue’s ME 444 Computer-aided Design And Prototyping class. After CAD and mechanism simulation the toy parts were 3D printed in SLA, painted, and painstakingly glued together. The only project from our class to be demonstrated successfully, and the only one featuring electrical motion, the Marble Racer actually drew applause from our peer teams. The project featured a completely custom pin and slot lift mechanism (reliable, if slightly over complicated) designed by my teammates.
Marble Racer was very roughly based on the Penguin Race toy (featuring penguins instead of marbles, the latter being infinitely harder) and completed for Dr. Anderson’s ME 444 class in Spring 2013. The final project has since been displayed prominently in a glass case just inside the door to the Mechanical Engineering Building and even used as a demonstration for later classes.