Project
| # | Title | Team Members | TA | Documents | Sponsor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | Solar-Powered Streetlights with Doppler Control Honorable Mention |
Brian Keegan Corey Weil Joshua Song |
Anthony Caton | design_document1.pdf design_document2.pdf final_paper1.pdf other1.pdf presentation1.pptx proposal1.pdf video1.mp4 |
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| Group Members: Corey Weil (cweil2), Josh Song (jssong3), Brian Keegan (bekeega2) Problem: According to the Department of Energy, there are an estimated 26.5 million streetlights in the United States, consuming the amount of electricity equivalent to 1.9 million households and generating greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to that of 2.6 million cars. While approximately half of these are owned and operated by the public sector, nearly all are paid for with public dollars, to the tune of more than $2 billion in annual energy costs alone. The hours that motor vehicles are required to have their headlights on (called lighting-up time, 30 minutes after sunset to 30 minutes before sunrise) are the peak hours for street lights but as road traffic slows, there is no need for streetlights to operate at their peak intensity. In many cases, there isn't a need for every streetlight to be turned on along a specific stretch of road. Solution: To reduce the costs associated with street lights we propose: Building a down-scaled solar-powered street lamp with built-in battery storage Controlling the light intensity based on Doppler radar vehicle detection Solar-powered street lights reduce both the initial setup as well as cost-over-time. This makes for an economic advantage while also preventing safety issues associated with blackouts. Vehicle/pedestrian detection from Doppler radar or LIDAR speed detection (used by law enforcement) will control intensity. Lights can either remain at a very low base intensity or be off until a vehicle is detected; low intensity provides more safety for pedestrians who still benefit from having all street lights on. For more discussion between our team and Anthony Caton, please see: https://courses.engr.illinois.edu/ece445/pace/view-topic.asp?id=30348 Subsystems: Sensor Subsystem Doppler radar or LIDAR sensors to detect oncoming vehicles or pedestrians Power Subsystem DC-DC conversion from solar to battery storage Lighting Circuit Criterion for Success: Our solar-powered streetlight will have a battery storage system and will be able to detect oncoming vehicles in order to control light intensity. |
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