Prototype 1! (Week 3)

The progress

This is the design of our first prototype. A wide platform on the top and 2 narrow hulls at the sides. We used hot glue gun to glue the styrofoam together. Surprisingly, the styrofoam did not melt when we used hot glue gun.

The wooden sticks are used to secure the hulls and the platform together which it minimized the breakage between styrofoams.

In order to place the cans more steadily, we cut out and built another platform at the front of the boat. We also put wooden sticks to secure the platform to the hull.

Since placing cans vertically can be unstable, we decided to place it horizontally with secure supports. Therefore, we added more styrofoam and ice-cream sticks to secure the cans after measuring the dimension of a tin can.

This is the final view of the first prototype. By the looks of it, it is very stable. And the cans can hold on even if the boat was tilted to 70 degrees.

Testing time!

From what we concluded...

When we placed it in the water, we realized that the support was built more towards the front of the platform, causing the boat to tilt forward. The weight of the cans is also one of the causes.

It may have been a nice boat, but we decided to make another better prototype.

After further discussion, we decided to build a second prototype boat, aiming to make the boat more stable and balanced.