Design Process
Define a Problem
Generate Concepts
To measure the cubes we first labeled all 27 cubes and set up the table to record the data values and using a dial caliper we were able to measure the cubes in inches out to the hundred thousandths decimal place. We measured the cubes to make a histogram of the relationship between the cubes and find out whether or not the cubes are almost all the same in width.
The sketches you can barely see above are my brainstorms of what pieces I can use in the final design of my puzzle cube, and out of those the ones that have been checked off are the five pieces that I actually used. All the drawings are in isometric view and I drew them to help visualize what pieces I could use for the cube.
Develop a Solution
Construct and Test Prototype
Degrees of freedom are the ability to move or rotate in a given direction, and based on that by taking away an object's ability to move a given direction takes away some of that object's degrees of freedom. In my puzzle cube I set all the pieces to mate with each other on each side and no piece can break free, and then I grounded the solid cube to the location it was in so nothing could move at all.
Evaluate the Solution
After recording the data of five people trying to solve my puzzle cube I was able to get results of what I could change to improve my cube's design.
Trials Name Time
1 Decklan 30 seconds
2 Meghan 40 seconds
3 Jon 2+ minutes
4 Grant 1 min 28 sec
5 Hunter 2+ minutes
The results that I found was that my puzzle cube had pieces that didn't fit together perfectly and you had to force the pieces together so when people were trying to solve it they didn't think that was right because it didn't fit well. If I were to make another cube I would make sure all the pieces will fit together right.
Trials Name Time
1 Decklan 30 seconds
2 Meghan 40 seconds
3 Jon 2+ minutes
4 Grant 1 min 28 sec
5 Hunter 2+ minutes
The results that I found was that my puzzle cube had pieces that didn't fit together perfectly and you had to force the pieces together so when people were trying to solve it they didn't think that was right because it didn't fit well. If I were to make another cube I would make sure all the pieces will fit together right.
Present the Solution
Throughout the puzzle cube project I have had fun creating the multiple pieced cube and it was tough to originally find a solution. During the puzzle cube project I have either been ahead or behind of the class for example when we first started inventor I was able to get all the way up to the assembly done, but on the other hand when I was absent I had a hard time catching up to the new skills that the class had learned. Some parts of this were a breeze for me while others proved to be quite difficult. For example, trying to pick which pieces to use for the cube design was hard for me, but creating dimensions and assembling parts was easy for me to do. Considering the design process I believe I followed all the steps accordingly, even though a bit out of order, but the one part of the design process we didn't do was the decision matrix because there were no choices to be made based on criteria. Finally the statistics of my puzzle cube design shows that the cube can be challenging or simple based on the fact if someone wants to force two pieces together, and the data might be misrepresenting it.