Ghislain REMY, IUT de CACHAN
Transforming a gas-powered buggy into an electric buggy to create a fun way for students to learn the principles of real-time command, control, and supervision.
Using NI CompactRIO hardware and LabVIEW software to control and monitor the electric drive of the buggy and a PC with a touch screen to steer and oversee the system, record the data, and finally propose a visualization of the driving range.
Since 2009, the IUT de Cachan has heavily invested in teaching its students about command and real-time control systems. With recent developments towards widespread commercialization of carbon-free vehicles such as electric and hybrid cars, the industry has a great need for skilled technicians and engineers that can work on these new applications. Thus, we developed a technology platform using six CompactRIO systems for a variety of electric vehicles including the Segway, an electric wheel motor, and the electric buggy.
The life of our projects may vary from two to 17 weeks; therefore, we needed a rapidly reconfigurable, highly modular, and easy-to-implement solution. The CompactRIO platform was a perfect choice for our all-electric buggy.
Students can use the CompactRIO Ethernet connection to work on several stations to run programs developed in LabVIEW and to carry out vehicle supervision, making it a suitable solution for teaching large groups.
Because CompactRIO is easy to program, we can use it to prepare our students for careers in industrial electrical engineering and computer science. Our students can use LabVIEW graphical programming to easily get started developing CompactRIO applications. Additionally, each student who owns a copy of LabVIEW Student Edition can develop part of their code at home, which encourages students to become more involved in the project.
Finally, this solution has established a strong link between National Instruments and the IUT de Cachan, which led to sponsorship of the buggy and LabVIEW training for students in our school.
We chose the engine battery-chopper and DC motor for the electric buggy based on their simplicity. The goal of this project was to teach our students the different skills necessary to operate the vehicle using the following tools:
We chose to install an NI PPC-2115 touch screen panel PC in the vehicle. Although power consumption is high for this component with nearly 100 W dissipated, it can run all programs developed by the students and it supports LabVIEW, which facilitates rapid development of code in the vehicle. We can also run a full version of LabVIEW and 3D models on the PPC-2115 and we can incorporate video into the vehicle without impacting the CompactRIO system operation. The exchange between the touch screen PC and the CompactRIO is easily handled by the system through shared variables and the Gigabit Ethernet port. The data exchange is seamless when operating the vehicle.
Because of CompactRIO, the complete vehicle prototype was ready after about three working months. The final prototype was able to travel 30 km with a peak speed of 35 km/h.
Our students are constantly suggesting improvements to the electric buggy, which are possible because of the modularity of the CompactRIO platform. Additional projects we are working on with the electric buggy include the following:
The results of this work will be included in a forthcoming publication.
Thank you to the teaching staff and technicians, without whom this work would not fare as well including Jean-Yves Le Chenadec, Patrick Ruiz, Eric Laboure, and Marc Ardillier, Vincent Gourcuff and Denis Pénard.
Ghislain REMY
IUT de CACHAN
9, avenue de la Division Leclerc - BP 140
94234 CACHAN CEDEX
France
Tel: +33 (0)1 41 24 11 57
ghislain.remy@u-psud.fr