The first addition to the project is casters to permit easy movement of the actual carts. It's a major plus in the usability category, while remaining fairly easy to implement. At the moment, we're thinking of using these casters from McMaster-Carr. Nothing special, but they're cheap, they'll support the weight, and most importantly they have brakes to keep everything from sliding around.
The second main point I've been addressing recently is the possibility of a steel frame. Seeing the original ramp being made out of wood, I naively assumed that's what I'd want to build out of, but someone did remind me that steel was a thing and might have potential here. My initial thought was "duh, it'll be sturdier, why didn't I think of that?" After pouring over some pricings, I'm not sure if metal is the way to go here.
It's fairly expensive which may require cuts to the rigging system which are crucial. I've been advised that the budget is "a few hundred dollars," but am a little unclear as to what that is. The E-Board said design it before they refine they're budget. Seems strange to me, but I'll make do.
Regardless, I'm going to continue designing two frames, one wood, one metal, then present them together. I'm not worried about that as the rigging translates to both and that's where most of our work is being focused. It's becoming more tedious than I would've thought.
This update is fairly minor, and pretty boring, actually, but we've been working. The RES is still in the early design phases, and we don't have much qualitative information, but soon enough!