Summary
At the beginning of the lab, a program was developed that allowed the AEV to travel from the starting point to the gate. This skill will be useful when programming the final project because the AEV will have to travel certain distances. Before the AEV was tested, the team confirmed that the AEV was balanced on the track. This was to ensure the AEV was stable before it was put above the heads of our classmates. After the code was completed, it was uploaded to the arduino and tested multiple times on the rail in order to ensure that the AEV stopped abruptly once it passed the gate by using the “reverse” and “motor speed” commands. The team collected the data from the successful run. The AEV recorded data every 60 milliseconds over a total of approximately 15 seconds. The team transported the data to MATLAB by using the sketchbook program. The code “aevDATARecorder” included in the sketchbook, helped the team in extracting the data collected from the arduino while the AEV was running. In MATLAB, the units of time was converted from milliseconds to seconds, check this EEPROM current(ADC counts) to current(amps), EEPROM voltage to voltage, wheel counts accumulated to meters, and finally, wheel counts recorded by reflectance sensors to AEV position(meters from starting point). These conversions were made to transfer the information in the arduino, which is in binary measurements to standard units the team could use to calculate the total energy (Joules) from the incremental energy (Joules) and input power (watts) using voltage and current. After the data was collected and converted, a plot of power vs time, power vs distance, energy vs time, and energy vs distance was made to visualize the data of the AEV run and determine where and when the AEV consumed the most power and energy during the run. These plots was developed on MATLAB using the plot features commands and can be seen in the MATLAB Code in the Appendix. The power vs time graph was divided into six different phases according to major changes in power inputs. Total energy was calculated by adding all the incremental energies together. This data is represented in Table 2 which contains the time, distance, phase, incremental energy, total energy, and arduino code that was running. The second plot was a power vs time graph and was made in the second part of the lab used the MATLAB graphical user interface (GUI). The arduino data was downloaded into “AEV_Analysis_tool.mlappinstall” which created the plot automatically. From there, the computer completed the analysis calculations.
Results
The test data for power vs time was divided into six phases based on major changes in power. The phase division can be seen in Figure 1 on the power vs time plot along with Table 2 which displays the arduino code, time, distance, incremental energy and running total energy at each phase. The first phase ran under the “reverse(2)” and “motorSpeed(4,35)” code from 0 to 0.36 seconds and took up 3.8155 Joules of energy. The second phase ran under the “goToAbsolutePosition(450)” code from 0.36 to 8.5220 seconds with an incremental energy of 78.3791 Joules which brought the total energy used up to 82.1946 Joules. The third phase coincided with the “reverse(4)” command and spanned from 8.5220 to 8.9420 seconds which took up 4.8179 Joules and brought the running total energy to 87.0125 Joules. The fifth phase ran under the “break(4)” command and lasted from 11.5820 to 12 seconds. This phase took up 1.8690 Joules and added to the total energy to make it 114.5886 Joules. The sixth and last phase was taken after the AEV braked and stopped running between the times of 12 to 14.7020 seconds with a phase of 0.4407 Joules to make the total energy through the entire run to be 115.0293 Joules. When the AEV first gets started in phase 1, there is a very short spike in power supplied. This is due to the propellers moving from rest. Phase 2 ran for the longest amount of time and took up the most amount of energy. This phase coincided with the AEV traveling the length of the track to get to the gate. It is expected that this phase took up the most energy because it traveled for the most amount of time. There is a spike in the amount of power used in phase 3 that is a result of reversing the propellers while going full speed. The propeller motors have to fully come to a stop, and then reverse the direction they are going, taking up a lot of power. Once the propellers were reversed, the power remained consistent with the results of phase 2. As soon as the AEV reaches phase 5 at approximately 12 seconds, there is a dramatic decrease in the power as the command breaks. This is followed by phase 6 as the power decreases to zero. Figure 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 show the AEV Test Data of power vs time, power vs distance, energy vs time, energy vs distance and the computer calculated power vs time respectively.
In Figure 1, the power vs time plot located in the appendix gives a physical representation of the power used during the test run. This plot aided in the team’s coding strategy in many facets. The plot showed multiple different phases of the AEV and the amount of power during every phase. The graph showed the time in seconds (x-axis) being plotted against power in watts (y-axis). Each phase is either oscillating, increasing or decreasing. The results of each phase can be helpful in reading the amount of power used in different tested programing codes, this would better the AEV performance in future labs by giving the team information to make changes that will better the AEV design. Figure 2 was the same plot as Figure 1 but without the phases. Figure 2 is the power vs distance which has similar results to Figure 1 and Figure 2 because the only thing changing in the plot is distance for time, which has similar incremental values of power. In Figure 4, Energy vs Time is being graphed, the plot helped the team notice that as time increased so did energy, which means they have a directly related correlation. In Figure 5, the energy vs distance plot showed that as the AEV distance increases, lower amount of energy is needed for the AEV to keep moving. Figure 6 is the same plot as Figure 1 and Figure 2 but it was made by the MATLAB Application and not the MATLAB program like all the other graphs. The plots made aided the team in writing a better program and design because the team tested for the most efficient Arduino code that will be achieved by analyzing the plot that corresponds to the program written by the team and adjusting the code depending on an increase or decrease of power or energy input.
Looking ahead, Lab 05a and Lab 05b deals mainly with screening and scoring of the design concepts. In this lab the team will code a program that will allow the AEV to travel on a straight path on the track. Additionally, the team will develop a screening and scoring of the AEV design. All the responsibilities for the labs are located in the appendix.
Team Meeting Notes
Date: 2-6-2017
Time: 6:00-7:50 pm
Members Present: Evan Berry, Alex Savelieff, Cameron Eckles, Ahmed Negnm
Topics Discussed: Distributing parts of the lab report and assigned specific roles to everyone.
Objective: Get the agenda set for the lab.
To do/Action Items: Split up each section between each other. Plan the next meeting and what should be done by then.
Decisions: Evan is going to complete the results and analysis along with keep the team meeting notes and proofreading the final paper. Ahmed is doing the present situation, weekly schedule, and question 2. Alex is going to do the future situation and question 1. Cameron is going to complete the takeaways, weekly goals, and work on question 1 with Alex.
Date: 2-9-2017
Time: 9:30-11:00 pm
Members Present: Evan Berry, Alex Savelieff, Cameron Eckles
Topics Discussed: What we have completed so far on the lab and what we still need to complete.
Objective: Start the lab and get some of the parts completed.
To do/Action Items: Plan the next meeting and what should be done by then. Continue to work on our parts of the lab.
Decisions: We will meet Saturday morning to complete most to all of the report and not worry about it during the week.
Date: 2-11-2017
Time: 10:00-11:30 am
Members Present: Evan Berry, Alex Savelieff, Ahmed Negnm
Topics Discussed: What parts still need to be completed.
Objective: Finish most to all parts of the report so we don’t have to worry about it over the week
To do/Action Items: Finish up the calculations along with all of the parts we each have to do.
Decisions: One more meeting needs to be in place to go over everything. We need it done by Monday to take it to the GTA and get it checked over.
Date: 2-14-2017
Time: 4:00-5:00 pm
Members Present: Evan Berry, Alex Savelieff
Topics Discussed: Square away loose ends of the project work on formatting
Objective: Proofread and finish lab
To do/Action Items: Make sure all aspects of the lab are present, complete, and valid
Decisions: Turn in lab and plan next meeting













