Dayrider
Team members:
- Tim Ikenouye
- George Jenny
- Amjad Sawaged
- Kieran Tie
Our project is to design a remote and self-controlled vehicle that is as energy-efficient as possible. This will be accomplished using technologies and principles employed in the design of full-sized hybrid automobiles. The design will include components that consume no more than the application requires (LED lights and other high-efficiency electronics) as well as regenerative techniques to reuse power expended in operation.
The vehicle will be actively controlled by a reprogrammed wireless router, running a custom Linux install - in essence, this will allow complete control over the system software and connected peripheral sensors and devices within the system. These peripherals will include temperature, speed and optical sensors.
The vehicle will be self-controlled by software responding to external data collected by sensors on the vehicle. Specifically, the primary source of power will come from a solar panel mounted on the vehicle. Optical sensors will determine the optimum location within a certain range to collect light energy and software will move the vehicle to that position.
Project Objectives:
- Minimum: A solar-powered, router-controlled RC vehicle.
- Target: A self-controlled software-sensor interface with hybrid/regenerative techniques for energy recapture and reuse.
- Optimal: A vehicle that consistently consumes less energy than it is able to harvest, with secondary systems (GPS, Energy Savings Calculator, self-defense capabilities, battery charger, bells, whistles) powered by the excess energy. A variety of harvested energies (in addition to solar) and energy recapture techniques.
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