Group 9 Team Members:
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-Jake Bettis, EE
-Jacob Krueger, CpE -Matt Roland, EE -Matt Tourtelot, EE |
Renewable energy has been growing rapidly in the recent years with products such as home solar panels that consumers use to avoid purchasing power from the grid that utilizes nonrenewable sources. Markets such as consumer solar power has caused a huge increase in the demand for engineers that know how to utilize these renewable sources of energy. Our group has a very wide scope of interests which is what sparked our interest in creating a solar powered golf cart. This project allowed our group to focus on different areas such as solar panel battery charge controllers, golf cart motor controllers, and a Touchscreen Display using a touch screen and microcontroller. The goal of this project was to create an energy efficient golf cart that is capable of running solely on the solar panels and possibly with some help from an external outlet if time is a concern. A Touchscreen Display gave the user many options such as efficiency mode, directional help, and status of the golf cart. The first component of this project that users saw was the Touchscreen Display. This provided the user with options as to what efficient mode they wish to be in, and is able to type in a destination and receive directions to it. Google maps provides the shortest route to the destination. A button in this menu gives the user a view of the status of the batteries and estimated distance remaining. The second component was the custom motor controller. It provides an energy efficient way to operate the golf cart in a manner that accelerates the golf cart smoothly. This controller interfaces with the Touchscreen Display to determine what mode has been selected by the user and adjust its power output accordingly. Pulse width modulation was used to allow for accurate control of energy output. A typical golf cart just uses a variable resistor in the pedal to determine how much current is passed through to the motor which is actually very inefficient because variable resistors constantly use energy. The charge controller was the final component of this project which monitored the power output from the solar panels and charge the batteries without damaging them or creating a fire from overfilling. The project required an immense amount of effort and dedication but was very educational and gave a better idea into the workings of solar-powered energy, motor power and controller circuits, as well as embedded microcomputer systems.
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Sponsored by:
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