This is Middle Tennessee State University’s solar boat running in the first endurance heat at the 2016 Solar Splash competition at Eastwood Park in Dayton, Ohio. The boat features dual Lynch LEM-170 95 brushed DC motors, dual Alltrax SPM48500 motor controllers, an Arneson-type surface drive (built in the MTSU machine shop) that is coupled to the motors through a simple chain drive, and it is being powered by two Trojan 100 Ah deep cycle batteries (because the rules only allow 100 lbs of lead acid batteries to be on-board) and two Panasonic 240 watt solar panels (480 watts total solar output).
The hull is a vacuum-formed carbon fiber hull that was made entirely by students in MTSU’s Experimental Vehicle Program (EVP) Lab. The top of the boat, however, is made of Styrofoam with only a very thin lamination of fiberglass that was set with epoxy. RAM mounts are used to attach the solar panels.
Because this is an endurance run the speed is kept relatively slow. In the video the boat is traveling approximately 7 mph. The driver in this heat is Mikhail Ault-Normandie, an engineering student and valued EVP team member at MTSU.
A GoPro Hero 3 was mounted to the rear and a Hero 4 was mounted at the front during this run. If you look over the driver’s shoulder you’ll see a stalk with two cameras. One is a GoPro and the other is a HD 1080p 30fps security camera. The secruity camera is used to stream the live feed back to the shore through the high-power Wi-Fi telemetry system.
Who am I? My name is Cary R. Woodson. I’ve worked in the MTSU EVP lab, both as an undergraduate and as a graduate assistant for a total of five years as of June 2016. I was on the original build team for this boat and was responsible for mold and hull construction, out drive design, solar panel mounting system, solar charging system, and the design and implementation of a long-range Wi-Fi telemetry system that allows for tracking and power management from the shore, and the streaming of live video back to the shore. I’ve been in charge of the MTSU Solar Boat team since 2012 and, during my time in the program, I have managed to see our team make it to the number two spot during both the 2015 and 2016 Solar Splash competitions.
Comments are disabled because of a group of people that I call “the microwave cooks from the inside out” group.
Post time: Jan-02-2017