Advanced Research and Development 3
Weight & its effect on energy consumption
In order to test the effect of weight on energy usage we decided to use a base AEV model upon which weights will be added on. For every weight that’s added, the weight added will be noted and will be tested using the same track and code as all tests to provide consistency in data procured. The data will be extracted from the AEV using the AEV extraction tool. The main objective of this research venture is to be able to understand how an amount of weight will increase energy consumption. For example for every I pound there is an additional 12 Joules of energy spent by the AEV.
Code to be used
Testing Code
Celerate(4,0,30,2); //Run all motors at 30% Power
goFor(5); //Runs for 5 seconds
brake(4); //Stops motors and AEV
DATA Extraction code
clc
clear all
close all
clear emptyTextMask;
x = 1;
//Get number of Excel Files to check
numExcel = input(‘Enter number of excel files: ‘);
while(x <= numExcel)
excelname = input(‘Enter Excel Name: ‘, ‘s’)
//Grabs Variable Data
Time = xlsread(excelname,’G:G’);
Marks = xlsread(excelname,’D9:D559′);
Distance = xlsread(excelname,’J:J’);
% (Time, Current, Voltage, Distance, Position, Speed, Powerin, IncEnergy, TotalEnergy)
v1 = input(‘Enter First variable (Time):’)
v2 = input(‘Enter Second variable (Distance or Marks): ‘)
v3 = input(‘Enter graphing practices (bo,g+,rs,yd,kv,m–,r-.,k-,w^,g:): ‘,’s’)
TF = strcmp(v1,v2);
//Plot Graph
if TF ~= 1
figure(1)
plot(v1,v2,v3)
hold on
end
x = x +1;
End
//Edit Plot title & labels
getTitle = input(‘Enter Title Name: ‘, ‘s’)
title(getTitle)
getXlb = input(‘Enter X axis: ‘, ‘s’)
getYlb = input(‘Enter Y axis: ‘, ‘s’)
xlabel(getXlb)
ylabel(getYlb)
legend(‘Clean1′,’Clean2′,’Clean3′,’Clean4′,’Clean5′,’Dirty1′,’Dirty2′,’Dirty3′,’Dirty4′,’Dirty5′,’location’,’southeast’
Description
A supplementary Advanced Research and Development on any research area deemed necessary by each team was to be completed by the company. Potential areas of research for the team included comparison of distance and time based coding, and weight and its effect on energy consumption. Since another team picked the first topic, the latter was chosen for Team B.
The AEV with no addition was run on the track with no added weight to set a baseline of energy consumption for comparison against future weight additions onto the AEV. After that weights were added on to the AEV and the data compiled and analysed.
Results & Analysis
Using distance-based code, research was conducted on the effect of weight on the energy consumption of the AEV. While it’s easy to dismiss an increase in weight will automatically lead to an increase in energy, the team wanted to understand the full scope of what effect it has on the AEV including time it takes to complete a task.
In Figure 1 , 2 and 3 similarities can be seen in the behaviour of the graph indicating that the data collected is consistent. The differences in the graphs arise from the magnitude in terms of Joules on the y-axis and time on the x- axis.
When comparing Figures 1 & 2 we can conclude that an increase in weight leads to an increase in energy output by the AEV. It also increases the amount of time the AEV takes to complete a given task.
With Figures 2 & 3 the AEV has the same weight but the placement of the weight on the AEV differed with Figure 2 having the extra weight hanging from the front and Figure 3 having the weight hanging from the back. As the data shows, having the weight hanging from the front used lower amounts of energy when compared to the weight hanging from the back.
The conclusion that rose from this research was that an increase in weight leads to an increase in energy and time for an AEV to complete a certain task. Also placement of weight is important to conserving energy. Placing weight could lead to a decrease in energy consumption and time taken by AEV.
The pictures of the weights hanging from the AEV can be seen in the appendix both Figure 2B and 3B corresponding to Figure 2 and 3 respectively.
Takeaways
- An increase in weight leads to an increase in energy.
- Correct placement of weight can increase energy efficiency.
Figures & Tables
Figure 2B
Figure 3B