<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify">The design and implementation of low-power RC robots with wind and solar charging capabilities have been researched and presented in this paper. In standard RC and most robot applications, systems utilize high voltage and capacity multi-cell battery banks. To differentiate from the norm ASME requested of participants of the 2021 Student Design Competition to develop a system solely operating on a single AAA battery. The robot was tasked with carrying weights across the competition game board while having the capability to recharge its power source utilizing solar and wind energy as well as being remotely controlled. For completing the tasks and following the competition rules, custom robot platform was developed at Western New England University. Due to a lack of familiarity and knowledge regarding many aspects of such systems, most of the subsystems were developed through continuous study and testing of components in various configurations. These include propulsion, generator assembly, control system, solar panels, and wind turbines. Motor testing included sizing motors based on the power requirement and rated operational values as RPM, Torque, and Rated Voltage. Motor research included studying different motor types, primarily Simple DC Motors and Geared DC Motors. As the extension of the motor research, some of the motors were used as generators in wind turbine assembly. This required additional study as the motors behaved vastly differently in the role of generators with power output being much less than the rated values of the component. For that purpose, more powerful motors were tested and utilized to ensure high enough output to effectively recharge the battery. Besides, research into the design of wind turbine blades was employed. Several different shapes and geometries were used during design and testing phase with performance being evaluated based on power generated. Control systems proved to be an entire project on their own with how little systems utilize power as low as in this case. The low capacity battery recommended by the rules &nbsp;eliminated several existing and tested systems by simply not being able to supply enough energy. These systems included Arduino based system, an RC control system used in drones and model planes as well as any form of communications as Bluetooth and Ethernet. Eventually, an existing RC car system was used and modified to effectively operate all the components of the system. Solar Panel research proved to be the simplest with readily available units and tests of several different types followed by selecting the one with characteristics most suitable to battery specifications. The design process was completed using Autodesk Inventor and SolidWorks with several different iterations of the drive system, wind turbine, and solar farm. All the components that were not outsourced were completed in-house using laser-cut acrylic and 3D printed pieces. The design goals laid out by the competition organizers were met and the robot successfully operated under the given constraints. Based on the finding from this research, more systematic approach will be defined and developed for implementing robot control systems with small power sources.</p>

Design of a Robotic Vehicle for ASME Student Design Competition 2021

Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/IMECE/IMECE2021/volume/85543

ASME 2021 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (IMECE2021)

Supporting the need among researchers worldwide for additional online and multimedia content, ASME now offers the ASME Conference Video Collection. This platform will collect and provide long-term access to conference presentation videos, encompassing all technology areas within ASME's technical conference and events program. About 30,000-40,000 engineers across all mechanical engineering and related disciplines participate in ASME conferences each year. This includes authors of approximately 6,000 to 8,000 technical papers published by ASME, the majority of whom also submit video presentations for our virtual conferences. The video collection will be available as an add-on to existing product packages or as a separate subscription.