scholarly journals Development and Performance Evaluation of a Solar Powered Lawn Mower

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 348-362
Author(s):  
Babatunde SOYOYE
Keyword(s):  
Performance Evaluation ◽  
Dc Motor ◽  
Solar Panel ◽  
Galvanized Steel ◽  
Continuous Increase ◽  
Lawn Mower ◽  
Speed Controller ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Solar Powered ◽  
Cutting Capacity

The continuous increase in the cost of fuel and the effect of emission of gases from burned fuel into the atmosphere when operating engine powered lawn mower has necessitated the use of the abundant solar energy from the sun as a power source of a lawn mower. A solar powered lawn mower was designed, fabricated and assembled on the basis of the general principle of mowing. The components of the lawn mower are; direct current (DC) motor, rechargeable battery, solar panel, galvanized steel blade of various thicknesses and shapes, and a speed controller. The required torque needed to drive the galvanized steel blade was achieved through the DC motor. The speed of the DC motor was controlled by the speed controller with the resistance in the circuit and allowed the motor to drive the blade at varied speeds. The battery recharged through the solar charging circuit, which comprises of a solar panel and charge controller. Performance evaluation was conducted on the developed mower with various thicknesses (1 mm, 1.5 mm and 2 mm) and shapes of the cutting blade (two, three and four blades). It was found that the cutting efficiency of the mower ranges from 70.50% - 84.10%, also the cutting capacity ranges from 0.05 ha h-1 - 0.27 ha h-1, the uncut area was also found to range from 15.90% - 29.50%.

EFFECT OF PULSE WIDTH MODULATION ON DC MOTOR SPEED

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cosmas Tatenda Katsambe ◽  
Vinukumar Luckose ◽  
Nurul Shahrizan Shahabuddin
Keyword(s):  
Duty Cycle ◽  
Pulse Width ◽  
Pulse Width Modulation ◽  
Dc Motor ◽  
Buck Converter ◽  
Motor Speed ◽  
Push Button ◽  
Cycle Rate ◽  
Speed Controller ◽  
And Performance

Pulse width modulation (PWM) is used to generate pulses with variable duty cycle rate. The rapid rising and falling edges of PWM signal minimises the switching transition time and the associated switching losses. This paper presents a DC motor speed controller system using PWM technique. The PWM duty cycle is used to vary the speed of the motor by controlling the motor terminal voltage.The motor voltage and revolutions per minutes (RPM) obtained at different duty cycle rates. As the duty cycle increases, more voltage is applied to the motor. This contributes to the stronger magnetic flux inside the armature windings and the increasethe RPM. The characteristics and performance of the DC motor speed control system was investigated. In this paper, a PIC microcontroller and a DC-DC buck converter are employed in the DC motor speed controller system circuit. The microcontroller provides flexibility to the circuit by incorporating two push button switches in order to increase and to decrease the duty cycle rate. The characteristics and performance of the motor speed controller system using microcontroller was examined at different duty cycle rate ranging from 19% to 99%.

scholarly journals Financial and Performance Analyses of Microcontroller Based Solar-Powered Autorickshaw for a Developing Country

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abu Raihan Mohammad Siddique ◽  
M. Shamim Kaiser
Keyword(s):  
Discharge Rate ◽  
Dc Motor ◽  
Cost Ratio ◽  
Battery Life ◽  
Motor Speed ◽  
Cost Of Energy ◽  
Present Worth ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Solar Powered ◽  
Dc Motor Driver

This paper presents a case study to examine the economic viability and performance analysis of a microcontroller based solar powered battery operated autorickshaw (m-SBAR), for the developing countries, which is compared with different types of rickshaws such as pedal rickshaw (PR), battery operated autorickshaw (BAR), and solar-powered battery operated autorickshaw (SBAR), available in Bangladesh. The BAR consists of a rickshaw structure, a battery bank, a battery charge controller, a DC motor driver, and a DC motor whereas the proposed m-SBAR contains additional components like solar panel and microcontroller based DC motor driver. The complete design considered the local radiation data and load profile of the proposed m-SBAR. The Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) analysis, Net Present Worth, payback periods, and Benefit-to-Cost Ratio methods have been used to evaluate the financial feasibility and sensitivity analysis of m-SBAR, grid-powered BAR, and PR. The numerical analysis reveals that LCOE and Benefit-to-Cost Ratio of the proposed m-SBAR are lower compared to the grid-powered BAR. It has also been found that microcontroller based DC motor control circuit reduces battery discharge rate, improves battery life, and controls motor speed efficiency.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document