The motor configuration is one of two advanced experimental tests Team D attempted to try and improve the Advanced Energy Vehicle’s design. In this test, the team changed the positions of the motors to try to improve the overall power output and efficiency. Using the data gathered in this test, Team D will determine if the team needs to change the design to use the motors more efficiently. To do this, the team will use five different configurations to try to cover each base. In addition, for each test the team will use the same code to make sure that there is good consistency between tests.
Motor Configuration One
This configuration contained two motors that were oriented backwards on top of two different fins that were attached to the baseboard in the back. This configuration tied for second when it came to energy efficiency and came in second as well for distance over time.
Motor Configuration Two
This configuration contained one motor that was oriented backwards, while centered on the bottom of the baseboard in the back. This configuration came in first for energy efficiency and in fifth place for distance over time.
Motor Configuration Three
This configuration contained two motors that were oriented backwards on fins that offset each other with the baseboard parallel to the wheel arm. This configuration tied for second when it came to energy efficiency and came in fourth for distance of time.
Motor Configuration Four
This configuration contained two motors that were oriented forwards on the bottom of fins that were attached at the back of the Advanced Energy Vehicle. This configuration tied for second when it came to energy efficiency and came in first for distance over time.
Motor Configuration Five
This configuration contained two motors that were oriented backwards on the bottom of two fins attached to the middle of the Advanced Energy Vehicle. This configuration tied for second when it pertained to energy efficiency. It came in third when assessing distance over time.
Supporting Data
The first graph shows the energy used by the Advanced Energy Vehicle over time. This information helped Team D determine which craft would be the most efficient as compared to other vehicle configurations. Note that each two motor configuration was averaged, as most reached a similar distance. This allowed the team to determine if a one motor configuration was better than a two motor configuration. The second graph shows the distance that each configuration traveled over time. From this, Team D established which vehicle was the most efficient over the greatest distance.
Conclusions & Results
All in all, Motor Configuration Two is the one that the team proceeded with in testing. The reason for this is that when tested it was almost twice as energy efficient as all of the other motor configurations. This was due to the fact that all the other configurations involved two motors. This is supported by the data above, as looking closer at Configuration Two reveals that it is twice as energy efficient, but can exceed even 60% the power of the dual rotor craft. Team D believes this is due to the drop in weight between the tests. Even though this will have an impact on how fast the Advanced Energy Vehicle will go in a certain amount of time, it will more than make up for it in terms of pure efficiency, which is Team D’s primary goal in creating the Advanced Energy Vehicle. In turn, this will allow for AEV to be much more energy efficient for the city of Columbus as well as the cost effective due to the AEV using less power.
Code Used:
| Code | Function |
| celerate(4,0,25,3); | Accelerates all motors from 0% to 25% speed over 3 seconds |
| motorSpeed(4,30); | Sets all motors to run at 30% speed |
| goFor(2); | Sets the motors to run at 30% speed for 2 seconds |
| motorSpeed(4,20); | Sets all motors to run at 20% speed |
| goFor(2); | Sets the motors to run at 20% speed for 2 seconds |
| brake(4); | Stops the rotation of the engines for all motors |
| goFor(3); | Keeps the motors braked for 3 seconds to allow the AEV to coast |
| reverse(4); | Reverses the direction of all motors spin for backwards efficiency testing |
| celerate(4,0,25,3); | Accelerates all motors from 0% to 25% over the period of 3 seconds |
| motorSpeed(4,30); | Sets the speed of all motors to 30% |
| goFor(2); | Sets the motors to run at 30% speed for 2 seconds |
| motorSpeed(4,20); | Sets the speed of all motors to 20% |
| goFor(2); | Sets the motors to run at 20% speed for 2 seconds |
| brake(4); | Stops the rotation of all motors |
Note: Code was deliberately used to ensure a backwards and forwards test so Team D could gather as much information as possible about how the craft would perform. For a list of functions see here.