Topic: Battery Testing
Procedure:
- Make sure that the battery is completely charged for consistent results
- Create a test code that will be used to test battery efficiency over certain distances
- A test code could be setting the battery to 30% power and then traveling for 7 yards and then braking to a stop, the code will be run 3 different times to get an average data set
The next code will be to set the battery to 30% power and then “goFor” a certain distance that will be equivalent to the 7 yards distance and then brake to a stop, this code will be again run 3 different times to get an average data set
- Extract data from a MATLAB code to obtain data graphs of Power vs. Distance and how the battery deteriorates over time
- Interpret the data to see which set of code allows for the battery to use less power so that the team may stay below the budget allotted for the experiment
Controls: The team will try to use the same track for runs, the same AEV design in each run, and use the same code for the 2 consecutive runs.
Possible Issues: When nay experiment is conducted there will always be possible issues that may arise. Some that may come in testing the battery could be the consistency of the batteries. Though the team needs them to be fully charged, the group knows that not all runs will have a completely charged battery, especially after consecutive runs. Since batteries deteriorate over time, the battery will not be able to give 100% accurate results. Another issue that may arise could be the availability of the track for testing purposes. Since all teams are around the testing phase, many teams will need to use the tracks to get the data they need for their experiments, due to this, the availability of the tracks will be lower than preferred by the team. To combat this, the team must write their test code quickly and accurately to maximize the amount of track use they can get.
Results:
The average power consumed when initializing the speed of the AEV and then decelerating was less than when the AEV accelerated for the same amount of time, however, accelerating causes coasting which gives a higher energy efficiency with distance, but gives less total control. While decelerating doesn’t give distance, it allows for higher control and precision.
Group Q found that starting at an initialized speed with decelerating allows for less power consumption and more motion control, but it doesn’t go long distances because there’s no coasting.