Solar Bicycle Project

There are many types of bicycle in the world such as normal bicycle that people need to paddle for it to move, motorized bicycle that uses fuel as its prime power and electric bicycle that can only be sufficient for an hour. Because of some weaknesses in the existence system, the idea of a solar bicycle came in mind. The idea is to make the bicycle last longer and can be automatically recharge when the bicycle is not in use by the renewable solar energy. The concept of the solar energy is that a high torque motor will be put on the bicycle which will be generated by the solar energy. The solar energy will be absorbed by the portable solar panel to generate the power. The power that had been absorbed by the panel can be used directly by the motor if the power matches the power requirement. If not, the motor will use the power from a battery. When the bicycle was not in use during the day, the solar panel will charge the battery. The system will make bicycle operate more efficiently.

The most important thing before starting the project we must clearly understand about the topic that we want to do. So by doing the literature review we can gain knowledge to make sure we fully understand and can complete the project.

The basic configuration of an electric bicycle drive consists of a controller that controls the power flow from the battery to the electric motor. This power flow acts in parallel with the power delivered by the rider via the pedal of the bike. The rider of an E-bike can choose to rely on the motor completely, pedal and use the motor at the same time or pedal only (use as a conventional bicycle)

Solar Panel

A photovoltaic module or photovoltaic panel is a packaged interconnected assembly of photovoltaic cells, also known as solar cells. The photovoltaic module, known more commonly as the solar panel, is then used as a component in a larger photovoltaic system to offer electricity for commercial and residential applications .

The primary difficulty with solar power and indeed with its cousin wind power has been one of efficiency. There is more than enough energy hitting the earth in the form of solar radiation to meet power needs of our species. Estimates indicate that there is four times as much wind energy available for our use as the species uses every year. Solar power is even more dramatic, the sun showers the planet with more energy every day than we use in a year. So the difficulty has never been the availability of sun and wind, they are readily available.

Solar battery chargers are an inexpensive, environmentally friendly, and convenient way to make sure your batteries are always fully charged and ready to go all the time. The problem with charging a battery from a solar panel is the SUN. It does not shine all the time and clouds get in the way. Our eyes adjust to the variations in the strength of the sun but a solar panel behaves differently. As soon as the sun loses its intensity, the output from a solar panel drops enormously. Not only does the output current fall, but the output voltage also decreases. Many of the solar panels drop to below the 13.6v needed to charge a 12v battery and as soon as this occurs, the charging current drops to ZERO. This means they become useless as soon as the brightness of the sun goes away.

Motor

The main characteristic of Brushless DC Machines is that they may be controlled to give wide constant power speed ranges because the Motor Voltage may be held constant at Maximum Bus Voltage over the Constant Power Range. In this condition the machine exhibits a leading power factor and with suitable control leads to low switching losses in the Inverter when in the High Speed Region-The Machine has the lowest size and weight of any of the main contenders. The disadvantage is the need for Permanent Magnets with Unity Recoil Permeability and Suitable Containment Sleeve Technology both of which have now been solved effectively. In this type of machine the main losses are in the Stator Iron and a number of factors are important in reducing this.

Speed control

As considering on the measurement results from the system, the noise effect of PWM control method, and the characteristics of the dc motor, it is expected that we could control the speed of the dc motor stably and highly efficiently . In ordinary times the dc motor is driven by change of a transmission in this system and as the speed of it decreases due to the overload, the load induction unit works automatically to accelerate it with the maximum efficiency of the system. The speed of the dc motor, therefore, can be regulated.