Performance Test

From the past experiments and trials like motor quantity and coasting vs. power braking it was deemed that the AEV would contain two motors to move the AEV and through much consideration coasting was determined best for the AEV. This was determined through the results in the Coasting vs. Power Braking lab when power braking was determined to use more power but with the right charge can be more consistent.  However, through talks with the team it was determined that the inconsistency in the charge of the battery would affect where it starts and stops.  When power braking the AEV can run at a certain speed for a longer period, however if the battery is more charged than expected when creating the code, the AEV could create an accident possibly creating the AEV to fall of the track making it more inclined to a bad accident.  After these discussions coasting was determined to be the safer and cheaper recommendation.  With a slower speed the accident wouldn’t be as brutal.  The experiment was then tested with a code that would hopefully work, this created many test trials, about a day of work.  The code performed perfectly during the testing and created a safe AEV ride with coasting.  After watching peers perform it seemed that coasting would be the most beneficial recommendation for the other groups as well.  Before the AEV is run it would be necessary to have multiple test trials to create a safe and comfortable AEV ride.  Through performance test 2 it would make more sense to power brake when trying to attach to the caboose to create a safe connection. coasting is looking to be too inconsistent for the future.  The future is going to get more complicated in the future as more aspects are added to the performance tests.  For the future the team will continue to use coasting whenever possible, this is to ensure the safety of the passengers.  The design will continue to be the same to keep the same weight as it is necessary to keep to not change the coding as much so that the consistency will continue to get better.  The team plans to sit down and have a meeting on whether or not power braking or coasting would be best for approaching the caboose to continue the safest way of attaching without crashing and also increasing the consistency within the testing in the future.