Project

# Title Team Members TA Documents Sponsor
79 SUPERCAPACITOR MODULE FOR ILLINI-ROBOMASTER ROBOT
 Haoyuan You
Shaurya Grover
 Matthew Qi design_document2.pdf
final_paper1.pdf
photo1.jpg
photo2.jpg
presentation1.pptx
proposal1.pdf
SUPERCAPACITOR MODULE FOR ILLINI-ROBOMASTER ROBOT

Team Members:

- You, Haoyuan (hy19)
- Grover, Shaurya (sgrover4)

PROBLEM

Illini-Robomaster (iRM) is an RSO at UIUC competing in the Robomaster robotics competition. During a match, robots will be punished when exceeding the power limit (80W), but the monitoring system (referee system) is only checking the power output from the battery. To maximize available power for the motors and achieve greater mobility, we need a device to store and release energy. Existing solutions are either prohibited by the competition rules, too large to fit in our mobile robot, or sold at an unacceptable price by our competitor universities.

SOLUTION

We propose a supercapacitor module to supply power in addition to the battery. It should be capable to store energy from the battery when the robot is running on low power and release energy when the robot needs it. Thus, we have more power available. The supercapacitor module should be controlled by the master MCU on the robot and when additional power is needed, the master MCU can control the MCU on the module to release the power.

We propose two solutions:

1. The capacitor sits between the battery and the rest of the robot’s power bus. The robot is powered entirely by the capacitor and the battery only charges the capacitor. The battery, capacitor, and the robot’s power bus are interconnected with DC-DC converters.
Battery = DC-DC = Capacitor = DC-DC = Motors (Robot)

“=” stands for power connection

2. The battery directly connects to the power bus and the capacitor is connected to the power bus with a bi-directional DC-DC converter. DC-DC converter charges the capacitor when the battery has extra power and reverts the direction of current when the robot needs extra power. We think this is a similar case to a redundant power supply design.
Battery = Motors (Robot) = DC-DC (Bidirectional) = Capacitor

“=” stands for power connection

We think there are advantages to the second design due to one more DC-DC in the first design introduces extra power loss. Moreover, if the capacitor module breaks in the second design the rest of the robot is left unaffected. Yet we also think the second design is more challenging to implement.

SOLUTION COMPONENTS

CONTROL UNIT (SAME FOR BOTH DESIGNS)

MCU
Control the Power unit and communicate with the master MCU on the robot through CAN or UART. Either Atmega328 or STM32F103 depending on prototype performance.

Voltage and current sensor
Measure the voltage and current of the capacitor to estimate the power output and report to the master MCU

POWER UNIT

Capacitor array (Same for both designs)
The game rule restricts the maximum energy storage to be 2000J and the max voltage on the power bus is 30V, so the max capacitance is around 4.4F. We might choose a smaller value for safety concerns. There is also an unused capacitor array in the RSO, we might consider integrating it into the module to reduce cost.

Design 1: {

Supercapacitor charging control module
Charging of the capacitor from the battery, controlled by the MCU. This might be a DC-DC converter or off-the-shelf capacitor charging control module (like BQ24640)

DC-DC module
Convert the output voltage to the same voltage as the power bus (24V). Consider using a buck-boost converter.

}

Design 2: {

Bi-directional DC-DC converter
Convert the voltage from the power bus to the capacitor during charging and convert the capacitor's voltage to the power bus's during discharging. Controlled by the MCU to switch between two directions.

}

INTERFACES ON THE TARGETING ROBOT

These are not part of the module but will be integrated with the module during the competition this June:

24V M3508 motors and C620 motor speed controllers.

24V battery

The module should be able to sustain the induced current from the motors and not break any device powered by it.

CRITERION FOR SUCCESS

- Criterion 1: The supercapacitor module must be able to store a certain amount of energy
- Criterion 2: The supercapacitor module must be able to release energy
- Criterion 3: The supercapacitor module can be controlled by the master MCU

Interactive Proximity Donor Wall Illumination

Sungmin Jang, Anita Jung, Zheng Liu

Interactive Proximity Donor Wall Illumination

Featured Project

Team Members:

Anita Jung (anitaj2)

Sungmin Jang (sjang27)

Zheng Liu (zliu93)

Link to the idea: https://courses.engr.illinois.edu/ece445/pace/view-topic.asp?id=27710

Problem:

The Donor Wall on the southwest side of first floor in ECEB is to celebrate and appreciate everyone who helped and donated for ECEB.

However, because of poor lighting and color contrast between the copper and the wall behind, donor names are not noticed as much as they should, especially after sunset.

Solution Overview:

Here is the image of the Donor Wall:

http://buildingcampaign.ece.illinois.edu/files/2014/10/touched-up-Donor-wall-by-kurt-bielema.jpg

We are going to design and implement a dynamic and interactive illuminating system for the Donor Wall by installing LEDs on the background. LEDs can be placed behind the names to softly illuminate each name. LEDs can also fill in the transparent gaps in the “circuit board” to allow for interaction and dynamic animation.

And our project’s system would contain 2 basic modes:

Default mode: When there is nobody near the Donor Wall, the names are softly illuminated from the back of each name block.

Moving mode: When sensors detect any stimulation such as a person walking nearby, the LEDs are controlled to animate “current” or “pulses” flowing through the “circuit board” into name boards.

Depending on the progress of our project, we have some additional modes:

Pressing mode: When someone is physically pressing on a name block, detected by pressure sensors, the LEDs are controlled to

animate scattering of outgoing light, just as if a wave or light is emitted from that name block.

Solution Components:

Sensor Subsystem:

IR sensors (PIR modules or IR LEDs with phototransistor) or ultrasonic sensors to detect presence and proximity of people in front of the Donor Wall.

Pressure sensors to detect if someone is pressing on a block.

Lighting Subsystem:

A lot of LEDs is needed to be installed on the PCBs to be our lighting subsystem. These are hidden as much as possible so that people focus on the names instead of the LEDs.

Controlling Subsystem:

The main part of the system is the controlling unit. We plan to use a microprocessor to process the signal from those sensors and send signal to LEDs. And because the system has different modes, switching between them correctly is also important for the project.

Power Subsystem:

AC (Wall outlet; 120V, 60Hz) to DC (acceptable DC voltage and current applicable for our circuit design) power adapter or possible AC-DC converter circuit

Criterion for success:

Whole system should work correctly in each mode and switch between different modes correctly. The names should be highlighted in a comfortable and aesthetically pleasing way. Our project is acceptable for senior design because it contains both hardware and software parts dealing with signal processing, power, control, and circuit design with sensors.

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