Engineering Projects/Electric Cars
Idea
[edit | edit source]Electric car motors can be almost picked up by one person. Fuel injection, cooling systems, exhaust systems are replaced with much lighter regeneration systems. An old pickup can be converted to an electric car. Some hybrids can be converted. All hybrids can be taken apart and put together.
Another idea: start outfitting a car like Goggle's. Popular Science (10/20, Kane) reports, "Sebastian Thrun, a Stanford professor and head of the project, and Google engineer Chris Urmson, delivered a keynote speech at the IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems in San Francisco, explaining how the" Google's self-driving fleet of Priuses work. "The 'heart of the system' is its Velodyne 64-beam laser that sits on the roof of the Prius, creating the 3-D map of the surrounding environment." This "image is combined with existing high resolution maps programmed into the car. Four radars (one for the front, back, left and right) are used to give the car far-sighted vision for handling high speeds on freeways." Also, there is "a camera near the rear view mirror for monitoring stop lights. GPS, an inertial measurement unit, and wheel encoder keep track of where the car goes."
Subsystems
[edit | edit source]Electric car projects can be divided into several major subsystems:
- Energy storage — high-voltage battery pack, battery management system, contactors, fuses, cooling, and state-of-charge monitoring.
- Traction drive — electric motor, inverter, reduction gear, motor mounts, and high-voltage cabling.
- Charging system — charge port, onboard charger, DC fast-charging interface where applicable, and charging safety interlocks.
- Regenerative braking — using the traction motor as a generator during deceleration to recover energy and store it in the battery.[1]
- Low-voltage electrical system — 12-volt battery, DC/DC converter, lighting, control modules, and accessories.
- Thermal management — battery cooling/heating, cabin heat pump or resistive heater, coolant pumps, and temperature sensors.
- Driver-assistance and automation systems — cameras, radar, ultrasonic sensors, steering/brake control modules, adaptive cruise control, lane keeping, and automatic emergency braking. These systems are not unique to electric vehicles, but many modern EV engineering projects include them as part of the vehicle electronics architecture.[2]
Tutorials
[edit | edit source]- U.S. Department of Energy: electric vehicle basics and regenerative braking.[3]
- National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: overview of driver-assistance technologies such as adaptive cruise control, lane keeping assistance, blind spot warning, and automatic emergency braking.[4]
- Practical diagnostic reading: ADAS diagnostic trouble codes, including C-codes, U-codes, radar/camera communication faults, and when calibration may be needed.[5]
Colleges/Universities
[edit | edit source]- ↑ U.S. Department of Energy, Alternative Fuels Data Center, "Electric Vehicle Basics", https://afdc.energy.gov/files/u/publication/electric_vehicles.pdf
- ↑ National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, "Driver Assistance Technologies", https://www.nhtsa.gov/vehicle-safety/driver-assistance-technologies
- ↑ U.S. Department of Energy, Alternative Fuels Data Center, "Electric Vehicle Basics", https://afdc.energy.gov/files/u/publication/electric_vehicles.pdf
- ↑ National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, "Driver Assistance Technologies", https://www.nhtsa.gov/vehicle-safety/driver-assistance-technologies
- ↑ TheFixCar, "ADAS DTC Codes: C/U Code Format, Common Examples, and What to Check First", https://thefixcar.com/specs/adas-dtc-codes/