Front side view of the Player. Our hovercraft was designed to be the Time Machine DeLorean in Back to the Future. We vacuum formed a DeLorean body to go around the functional components of the hovercraft. As specified by the project, a single blower fan is used to provide lift to the hovercraft. Two ducted fans are used in the rear of the bot for propulsion.
Rear view of the Player. The thrust air is diverted using two rudders with the same signal. The energy of the hovercraft is displayed via a flux capacitor with modulated light levels, providing six levels of energy with the tube light, and a lowest level of energy provided by a single red led in the center of the flux capacitor.
Thrust fan unit with ducted fan and nacelle, pylon, rudder and servo. The pylon was fabricated from laser-cut Duron; the nacelle was fabricated in ABS using an FDM 3D printer. The nacelle was designed to increase thrust in the forward direction. To accomplish this, the inlet lip profile is elliptical, and incorporates a reduction in area from inlet to the fan actuator disk. The exhaust duct incorporates a further reduction in area of about 15%. Together, these increase the thrust by about a third over the ducted fan itself in free air.
Hover body built from foam core, flexible skirt, lift duct, and SPDL-provided blower fan at top. Final machined lift duct at bottom.
The lift duct serves two purposes. First, it allows the lift fan to be mounted in the horizontal plane. This permits us to fit all of the components into a low-profile DeLorean body shell. This also couples roll to pitch via the fan's gyroscopic behavior, which is more desirable than coupling roll or pitch to yaw, as would happen with the fan mounted vertically.
The lift duct was also designed to increase the energy available for lift from the blower fan. The underside of the duct is designed to be a gentle expansion of the air into the lift cushion. This reduces flow separation and vortices, and therefore reduces flow losses significantly. This was observed to significantly improve hovering performance, allowing us to reduce the power to the lift fan and extend battery life.
Foam core was used for the final body as it was lightweight, easy to cut using a laser cutter, and in our case, free.
The skirt was made from lightweight rip-stop nylon fabric. We found through extensive testing of soft and hard sided skirts that this open bag type skirt with a string tensioner around the bottom worked best. We were inspired by designs of common low cost hovercrafts such as this one.
The lift duct serves two purposes. First, it allows the lift fan to be mounted in the horizontal plane. This permits us to fit all of the components into a low-profile DeLorean body shell. This also couples roll to pitch via the fan's gyroscopic behavior, which is more desirable than coupling roll or pitch to yaw, as would happen with the fan mounted vertically.
The lift duct was also designed to increase the energy available for lift from the blower fan. The underside of the duct is designed to be a gentle expansion of the air into the lift cushion. This reduces flow separation and vortices, and therefore reduces flow losses significantly. This was observed to significantly improve hovering performance, allowing us to reduce the power to the lift fan and extend battery life.
Foam core was used for the final body as it was lightweight, easy to cut using a laser cutter, and in our case, free.
The skirt was made from lightweight rip-stop nylon fabric. We found through extensive testing of soft and hard sided skirts that this open bag type skirt with a string tensioner around the bottom worked best. We were inspired by designs of common low cost hovercrafts such as this one.
Kicker assembly comprised of a front plate, pivot, and servo motor. The kicker was designed to be a simple as possible. Two diameters of epoxy tubing are used as both the axle and bushings for the kicker. The foam core kicker plate is then actuated by a standard ball-bearing servo.