"Wisdom begins in wonder" – Socrates
Tag: Mechatronic Engineering
Accelerometers
12/13/18
“How can we measure the acceleration of an object?”
Acceleration can be one of the most important things for an engineer to measure. But we will need a tool to accomplish this. This is how we can use accelerometers, which measure the stresses on piezoelectric material to determine acceleration.
Extremum Seeking Control
06/26/18
“Is there a control method that tries to sets a function at its extreme value?”
Control Theory is a deep subject. There seems to be a control method for every situation. And one of those situations might happen to be one where people are trying to keep a function at its extremum (the maximum or minimum absolute value). This Extremum Seeking Control allows for this to happen, and also gives it the privilege of heightened sensitivity reduction and disturbance rejection.
Ramp Rates
06/24/18
“How can we measure how long it takes for an energy generator to come online?”
Things in the physical world tend to have inertia. Electricity generating sources are no different. As a result, they will have a ramp rate in kW/minute that measures how long they take to come online.
LIDAR Scanning
06/23/18
“What makes autonomous vehicles work?”
Autonomous vehicles, archeological scanning, soil imaging, and automated agriculture all rely on knowing real-time distance to work. However, how exactly can we accomplish this? Well, let’s use our engineering mindset to find out. We know that if we send a beam of light from a laser somewhere, then it can be reflected back. And since the speed of light is constant in a uniform medium, if we measure the time it took to return, we can obtain a measurement for distance. This system is known as LIDAR Scanning, which stands for Light Detection and Ranging. LIDAR has caused a revolution in multiple fields of science and is moving every day closer and closer to mainstream adoption.
Process Control
06/19/18
“How can we control processes?”
Industrial processes are at the heart of the industrial internet of things. However, in order to ensure that the process is going in accordance with the procedure, there must be some form of guidance. For that reason, engineers have developed something known as Process Control, which allows a systems process to stay within all setpoints.
Inkjet Solar Cell
06/09/18
“How can we print solar cells?”
To secure energy independence and security, solar cells need to be manufactured at an incredible rate. Part of this includes an initiative to print solar cells known as inkjet solar cells. This will allow for an exponential increase in the number of usable solar, and can result in a massive energy transition.
MPPT Charge Controllers
05/16/18
“What is the most efficient solar tracker?”
PWM Solar Charge Controllers are definitely a step up from On/Off Solar Controllers. However, they’re definitely not the most efficient models. MPPT Controllers (Maximum Power Point) can maximize the output by changing the current and voltage delivered while doing the best to keep power constant. Because of this, they are the most highly valued systems on the market.
PWM Solar Controllers
05/15/18
“What is the current industry standard solar controller?”
On/Off Solar Controllers are great for simple and inexpensive projects. But sometimes we need to have more efficient solar control. One way to accomplish this is to vary the power of the battery depending on how full the battery is. The more empty a battery is, the more power it will receive, and the opposite when it is near full. This setup is known as a PWM Solar Controller and is the Greentech industry standard.
On/Off Solar Controllers
05/14/18
“What is the simplest type of Solar Controller?”
Solar Controllers come in all different types of varieties. But if we are strapped on finances, what is the simplest one that we can make? Well, wouldn’t it be a solar controller that simply turned on when there was sunlight and the battery was not full and off when not? This is the basics behind On/Off Solar Controllers, which are commonly used for inexpensive setups.
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