Team P’s Objective in this Research Experiment was to observe and draw conclusions on the degeneration of the Arduino battery oltage with repeated usage in the lab.
Full Program Used:
Run Number vs Voltage Chart
Note: Graphs of ‘Voltage vs Distance’ and ‘Voltage vs Number of Runs’ are still being processed. The following chart is a raw data representation of the observations in lab.
Observations:
The change in Voltage was surprisingly small between the multiple runs, with only a 0.02 volt difference between the 1 and 5 run. However, its important to keep in mind the real-life applications with this rate of Voltage decrease. If a full size model was in service transporting people into and out of Columbus hundreds of times a day, this voltage usage would be more significant and, more change resistant batteries would need to be researched to provide better energy economy for such a high traffic public vehicle. However, for the purposes of this AEV model with a smaller workload, the average voltage change for its particular battery is favorable.
*****Important Error Consideration: During one the teams extra runs to gain a larger data pool, a malfunctioning component of the reflectance sensor left the AEV motor unable to stop on its own. The propellers were moving for an interval of time before the vehicle motor was shut off manually. Despite the seemingly large motor usage, the voltage decrease between the extra run and the 5th measured was surprisingly small, less than 1 hundredth of a volt. This observation is another hint at the batteries reasonable resistance degeneration.
Conclusions:
The typical distances traveled by the model AEV do not have a significant impact on the voltage of the battery, provided that the AEV is given a reasonable workload appropriate for the purposes of testing and design.
Nevertheless, Team P will continue to maintain it’s model AEV’s physical condition to the highest quality and ensure that it is provided with the correct programs for desired runs, in order to practice energy conservation for its only source of power.