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B.Tech. Project Report on

Design and Fabrication of Power Controller for Electric Power Assisted Rickshaw

Submitted by Jaidev Divakar (Entry No: 2007ME10492) Prakash S. Meena (Entry No: 2006ME10500)

Supervised by Dr. Sinil Jha

Mechanical Engineering Department Indian Institute of Technology Delhi November 2011

Contents
Certificate Abstract Acknowledgements List of Figures Fig 1. Schematics of hydraulic system Fig 2. PWM waveform formations List of Tables Gantt Chart 7 3 5 i ii iii

1. 2.

Introduction Literature Review / Prior Art 2.1. Hydraulic hybrid rickshaw circuit 2.2. Power control methods

1 3 3 4 6 8 9 10 11

3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Methodology assembly of previous model Study the various power output control methods Conclusions References

Certificate
The work presented in this report has been carried out by us for the course MED411. The report accurately reflects the work done by us. All the material taken from other sources has been fully acknowledged.

Jaidev Divakar (2007ME10492)

Prakash S. Meena (2006ME10500)

Jaidev Divakar and Prakash S. Meena have worked under my supervision. I have read this report. It accurately reflects the work done by the students.

Dr. Sunil Jha

Abstract
The objective of the project is to design and fabricate Power controller for hybrid (electrical & hydraulic) cycle rickshaw. The specific objectives of the project include: 1. To study the previous model, and bring it in basic working condition. 2. To study and analyze various power output control methods for hydraulic system. 3. To design and fabricate the power controller. 4. Perform field tests for modified hybrid rickshaw.

The major beneficiaries of this project are rickshaw pullers, who presently work with the poorly designed rickshaws which take a heavy toll on the health of the rickshaw puller. They have to work very hard while climbing even a slight slope or when the load is high. The modified rickshaw will make their job much easier than before with substantial increase in their revenue as more output would be generated using minimal human input. The model has been brought into basic working condition. Study of various power control methods has been carried out. Few design modifications have been proposed wherever deemed necessary.

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Acknowledgement

We would like to thank our supervisor, Dr. Sunil Jha , who provided us with the opportunity to work under his guidance as a part of our B.Tech Project. We would like to extend our gratitude towards him for his valuable help in our attempt to complete the project. Without his unwavering support the project would not have reached its present state. We would also like to thank Mr. Tulsi Ram, of the Production Lab for his time and patience. We would also like to acknowledge Prof. Anoop Chawla and the review committee for critically examining our work and presentations.

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1.

Introduction

To the estimates, close to 1 million cycle rickshaws ply the Indian roads carrying about 3-4 billion passenger-km/year. They provide employment to about 700,000 rickshaw pullers, are very maneuverable and are completely nonpolluting and hence environmentally friendly means of transport. It is very unfortunate that deliberate policies in most of the urban towns of developing countries have been made by the concerned authorities to phase out these rickshaws. Nevertheless the existing rickshaws are very poorly designed so that it takes a heavy toll on the health of a rickshaw puller. The existing cycle rickshaw has hardly changed since it was introduced in 1930s and 40s in India. The gearing and the mechanical advantage of the pedal is very poor. Hence the rickshaw puller has to work very hard while climbing even a slight slope. It is therefore humanly degrading to pull the existing inefficient cycle rickshaw. Yet because of poverty, laborers do become rickshaw pullers and suffer adverse consequences to their health. The rickshaw manufacturing presently is a footpath industry with no quality control and there are as many rickshaw designs as cities in which they ply. These rickshaws are so poorly made that they have to be replaced completely in a couple of years. Thus there is a need to improve the existing rickshaw and increase quality control in its manufacturing. In this project we hope to assemble the previous design of the modified rickshaw with certain design modifications and further design and fabricate its power controller to achieve maximum output. Last year 3 students of I.I.T. Delhi worked under the supervision of Dr. Sunil Jha to design and fabricate electric power assisted rickshaw. They successfully designed and fabricated the basic hybrid electrical hydraulic system. But their project achieved a very crude model of the final product that could be run on roads. The improvements required in the design include o Power Controller o Suspension System o More efficient hydraulic pump for low rotational speeds
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After the completion of the project o We would be able to achieve a more efficient power output through the implementation of a power controller. o The changes in the design of the model would help us to produced a more polished product as compared to the previous crude model which could be manufactured on industrial level

2.

Literature Review

2.1. Hydraulic hybrid rickshaw circuit

The hybrid rickshaw is run by a hydraulic motor which is coupled to a rear wheel shaft through a gear box. The pressurized fluid to the motor is supplied from two hydraulic pumps: one run by an electric motor and the other is run manually with the help of pedals. The electric motor is powered from a battery set (12V x 4). As the human being can pedal only at small rpm values and most of the hydraulic pump work at higher rpm, so we will require a gear set to step up the input rpm to the manual pump. The hydraulic loop consists of flow from reservoir to pump 1 and 2 and then the flow combines at the junction and then drives the hydraulic motor from its pressure energy and the low pressure fluid returns to the reservoir.

Fig 1 Schematic of hydraulic system

The major difficulty faced in the design and fabrication is the distribution of power as the rotational speed of the motor and the mechanical human input is different and further, that the human power input is constantly changing. Apart from this the power output requirements are different according to the need of the rickshaw puller and the load he is carrying.
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2.2. Power control methods

Voltage Reduction Controller One of the most widely used controller for a long time. Its a simple device which controls voltage by varying the resistance. It simply changes the resistor value in order to achieve the desired voltage level. One of the major drawbacks of this type of controller is that, since it uses resistor, energy loss due to heat is fairly high and hence resulting in power loss. To avoid the power loss due heat generation, the better option for power controller is Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) or Pulse Duration Modulation (PDM). Pulse Width Modulation The most popular modern day control device. Unlike voltage reduction controller, it does not use resistors to alter the voltage, hence no heat generation and therefore no power loss. It works on the following principle The voltage supplied to the load is controlled by switching between supply and load on and off at a fast pace. The longer the switch is on compared to the off periods, the higher the power supplied to the load is. The PWM switching frequency has to be much faster than what would affect the load or device that uses the power (in this case a motor). Typically switching has to be done from few kilohertz (kHz) to tens of kHz for a motor. As stated before, the main advantage of PWM is that power loss in the switching devices is very low. When a switch is off there is practically no current, and when it is on, there is almost no voltage drop across the switch. Power loss is thus close to zero in both the cases.

Fig 2 PWM waveform formation. The longer the PWM signal, the more the increment in the analog signal and vice versa, giving us a desired waveform. Could easily produce DC voltage for the motor used.

Potential drawbacks to this technique are the pulsations defined by the duty cycle (the proportion of 'on' time to the regular interval; expressed in percentage), switching frequency may damage the motor. However, with a sufficiently high switching frequency and, using additional passive electronic filters, the pulse variation can be smoothed and desirable analog waveform (average) is obtained.

3.

Methodology

The work was organized into following steps as discussed below: I. Assembling the previously designed model As the previous models condition had deteriorated over time the complete model had to be assembled again, which was carried out through various field visits and lab work. Design modifications to the existing model Suggested wherever the need or discrepancy found in the previous model. This was achieved through field test. Study of various methods for power output control There are two main methods for controlling the power output of the electric motor: Pulse width modulation (PWM) & Voltage reduction. These must be analyzed to find the suitable controller.

II.

III.

The project work was accomplished through various field visits, lab work and literary research. The lab work was done together whereas the field visits and literary research were divided equally between the two group members. The work was purely experimental as it involved only fabrication and assembly of the previous model.

Gantt chart
Aug Study the existing model Sep Oct Nov Jan Feb Mar Apr

Look for any discrepancies Bring the model to basic working condition Study various methods for power output control Design the power controller

Fabricate the power controller

Perform various field tests

Original Actual Bringing the previous model to working condition took more time and effort than expected, as we encountered many discrepancies in the state of the parts of the previous model.
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4.

Assembly of the previous model

We successfully accomplished assembling the previous model and bringing it to basic working condition. 1. We started with a completely disassembled version of the previous model. 2. The conditions of many parts had deteriorated over time. Therefore some of them had to be replaced. 3. After making all the connections, the major problem in the model was regarding the leaks at the joints. The leaks were eliminated by sealing the joints in a better way. 4. The project required us to buy new parts (the regulator for the electrical motor, the hydraulic fluid for the system and the wooden box cover for the batteries) for the model which in turn required us to go for various field visits and market surveys.

The model has been brought to working condition, although a few leaks are encountered occasionally.

5. Study the various power output control methods

The purpose of a motor speed controller is to take a signal representing the demanded speed, and to drive a motor at that speed. The controller may or may not actually measure the speed of the motor. If it does, it is called a Feedback Speed Controller or Closed Loop Speed Controller, if not it is called an Open Loop Speed Controller. Feedback speed control is better, but more complicated. The speed of a DC motor is directly proportional to the supply voltage, so if we reduce the supply voltage from 48 Volts to 24 Volts, the motor will run at half the speed. The speed controller works by varying the average voltage sent to the motor. o It could do this by simply adjusting the voltage sent to the motor (VOLTAGE REDUCTION). o Another way is to switch the motor's supply on and off very quickly. If the switching is fast enough, the motor doesn't notice it, it only notices the average effect (PULSE WIDTH MODULATION). These are the two most widely used speed controllers. And the research until now shows that pulse width modulation is more favorable method for power control.

6. Conclusions
In the present project we were able to restore the previous model of rickshaw. Working in the workshop over this project helped us gain practical knowledge regarding the project, which would help us make more viable changes in design and propose new ones. We were also able to do research for the methods of controlling power output. The next semester will give us opportunity to design and fabricate the power controller for the hybrid rickshaw. It will also allow us to make some design changes in the rickshaw as per need be.

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7. References
Design and fabrication of electric power assisted rickshaw (dept. of mechanical engineering IIT DELHI , may 2011) Pulsewidth modulation for electronic power conversion J.Holtz, fellow IEEE Wuppertal university-germany Pulse-Width Modulator Design c 1997 Dragan Maksimovi_c Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering University of Colorado, Boulder http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulse-width_modulation

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