Dan Janssen Kyle Kolasinski Brad De Young

 Why use a performance model?  What the software does  The problem to be solved  Requirements  Implementation

 North American Solar Challenge  2400 mile solar car race across US and Canada  Started in 1990  July, 2008 will be 9 th race  Around 30 competing universities participate  The Sunseeker is 1 of 3 cars to finish every race  How to best utilize the car’s energy?

 Why model a solar cars performance?  Predict energy usage  Predict distance that can be traveled  Compare predicted performance with actual and adjust variables if necessary  What the software does  Allows the model to be run on the fly  Logs all of the data  Gives a graphical comparison of the predicted and actual performance

 Hardware  GPS unit  Radio modem  Software  Linux environment  Qt – GUI toolkit  Grace – graph package  GPSD – library to talk with GPS unit

 3 parts:  Model  User Interface  Graphical View

Rotational Resistance & Friction Cloud Cover Velocity Change in Altitude

INPUTSOUTPUTS  Speed  Weather Data  Terrain  Car Information  Energy  Power  Battery Charge

PLAN FILEROUTE FILE  Speed  Wind Heading  Wind Speed  Cloud Cover  Speed Limit  Stops  dX/dY/dZ  Altitude  Latitude/Longitude  Stop Time

 Real-time data sent from the car via radio modem:  Distance traveled  Engine temperature  Controller temperature  Voltage  Current  Speed  Data logged to a file

 A performance model helps to analyze and improve the efficiency of the Sunseeker car  Running the model on the fly allows for the predicted performance to be adjusted if need be  A visual representation of the model eases the process of analyzing the cars performance