Lab 1 Progress Report

The results were a successful test in which the motors ran as expected. The experiment included to many small potentials dealing with the performance of the motors. Potential performance errors included air resistance in the propellor, rotational issues in the axle of the propellor, and electrical errors within the AEV controller. When starting the code within the AEV controller, a slight delay was measured, but when observing the performance of the motors, there was no resistance, allotting for a smooth, constant acceleration.

Commands used in the lab have a limited effect on the AEV motion.  For example, applying the brake(m) function will cause the electric motors on the AEV to stop rotating the propellers. This cuts power from the AEV which in turn eventually slows the AEV down.  The command does not just stop the AEV from moving right away but causes a gradual decrease in speed.  Another limit to the commands are powering the motors to increase speed. The command turns the motor on to a specific power but the AEV gradually reaches a specific speed due to the change in power.

There were many potential errors in this lab, one of which,  is typing the commands in a wrong way.  An example of this is misspelling words or forgetting the “;” punctuation within the code. Once a command word is misspelled or a single punctuation is forgotten, the whole program cannot be run because the compiler only recognizes code when the code is exactly right. The second potential error could be the over-range of parameters. For example, the speed range is from 0% to 100% and if we input a negative number or a number of more than 100, there will be a bug. The third potential error could be the wrong sequence of the commands. The break command has to be written when the motors are running. Lastly, there is always the possibility for performance errors as stated earlier.