To: Professor Jolanta Janiszewska
From: Marcus Pereira, Nick Kanel, and Matt Musso
Subject: TRR 3
Date: April 5th, 2016
Purpose
The tests to be completed this week are concerned mostly with the optimization of the efficiency of the AEV, with minor tasks to be completed in fine tuning other portions of the code such as the cart hookup. The energy efficiency will mostly be enhanced by alterations in the code. For example, during downhill portions of a test run the power supplied to the motors can be reduced without a significant drop in the velocity of the AEV. Also, an aerodynamic body is to be completed in order to increase propeller efficiency, effectively creating a ducted fan, channeling a higher quantity of air into the propeller. To do this, a hyperboloid will be constructed around the propeller and the chassis of the AEV.
Following these changes, the telemetry from each run will be compared to the original design. In doing this, determinations will be made about the most appropriate locations for adjustments to be made. This process will then be completed until the total energy consumed by the AEV is satisfactory, and cannot be improved upon further.
Task/Team Member
Each team member will play an important part within the labs this week. Nick will be making most of the adjustments to the coding, as that is his strong point. Marcus will be recording the runs of the AEV with his phone, so any errors that happened can be played back so that changes may be made. Matt will be designing an aerodynamic body which will be 3D printed. It will be applied to the AEV so it will become more aerodynamic, in turn making it more efficient by increasing the amount of air that reaches the propellor, and increasing the provided thrust.
Discussion of Energy Optimization
In order to complete the objective as stated in the MCR, the AEV code will be worked on and run multiple times in order to get an idea of where things can be optimized and energy use can be reduced. On the hills, energy use can be reduced substantially by allowing the cart to coast more instead of going very slowly down the hill. A 3D printed shell may also be placed over the motors to allow for more airflow over the propellers. Both of these tasks will be simple and cheap to complete as they do not require any new parts to be purchased or added to the AEV.