Electrical & Computer Engineering Department Ryerson University EDP Topics of Xavier Fernando

Energy Harvesting Shoe-Pad Can a staircase capture energy from people walking up and down it ? When we walk along a pavement, eight watts of energy is absorbed by the ground with each heel. Is it possible to harvest at least 30% that energy. Pacesetters Project is will be the world’s first human energy harvesting staircase in Portsmouth’s Spinnaker Tower ( COE/ELE700 Engineering Design1/37 In this project, we will investigate how to generate enough electricity and store it in super capacitors to power our cell phones

Solar Panel Tracking System One major problem with many existing solar panels is their orientation. Most solar panels have static installation and only a small portion of the total sun light is properly utilised. The objective of the project is to design an inexpensive solar tracker system that will maintain the solar panel perpendicular to the sun most of the time. The tracker should have six degrees of freedom for proper operation. The power consumption of the tracker should be minimum (a fraction of the power improvement we get from the tracking) Other goals are cost reduction and circuit simplicity COE/ELE700 Engineering Design2/37

Electric Vehicles are now connected to the grid and part of the smart grid environment New Era of Mobility EV are part of the smart grid even if not connected Wireless EV monitoring

Wireless PEV Energy Manager Plug-in EV use up to 84% less energy compared to internal combustion vehicles However, users are reluctant They have the ‘range anxiety’ A Wireless PEV Manager could help them to better make use of the PEV –Adaptively control the charging depending on the grid condition –Giving a real time indication on charge level –Alerting too low battery charge or too high discharge rate Would you like to help? COE/ELE700 Engineering Design4/37 Hydro One is interested in this project They have given some funding You will be part of a bigger team

Radiant Heat Sensor Network Why it is cold close to the glass window even if the inside temperature is +25 C? Why at the same outside temperature, a sunny day feels warmer than cloudy day? The answer is radiant heating In Canada, radiant heating is underused Up to 30% heating cost can be saved by proper measurement and control of radiant heating COE/ELE700 Engineering Design5/37

Collaborative Robots for Simple Tasks 1.Many tasks require multiple mobile robots (search & rescue…) 2.They should establish a reliable wireless communication link. 3.They should accomplish a task together by communicating with each other in a collaborative manner. 4.They should perform complimentary actions, not identical actions. 5.The distance between them could be from few cm to few tens of meters. 6.Other goals are cost reduction, low power operation and circuit simplicity. COE/ELE700 Engineering Design6/37