Project-based Learning in Competition of Energy-Harvesting Electric Vehicles: Optimal Design

Abstract

As an option for zero-emission vehicles (ZEV), electric vehicles (EVs) have become one of the focuses of global energy transition in the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26). With the popularity and increasing demand for electric vehicles, making the battery of electric vehicles more sustainable has become an important topic. While pursuing the performance of electric vehicles, automotive engineers must also think about how to achieve a good balance with the use efficiency of electricity. Since 1997, the National Undergraduate Electronic Design Contest held in China has attracted tens of thousands of participants. Participants complete the challenges within a limited time through theoretical design and practical production. The competition's key challenge is finding the best operation strategy for electric vehicles' energy storage and power supply in interdisciplinary problems such as electronics, machinery, control, and artificial intelligence. In this study, vocational college teachers guide students to use a single-chip microcomputer as the core control module of a model electric vehicle. An intelligent electric car with the functions of power generation and energy storage is built with appropriate hardware and software. The energy storage principle of the electric vehicle is to use the repeated friction of the wheel belt to drive the motor and store electric energy based on the principle of reverse charging. To enable the electric vehicle to identify the road automatically, participants set up an infrared sensor to capture gray images to identify the changes in road conditions. Through project-based learning, students from different professional backgrounds such as vehicle engineering, electronic engineering, electromechanical engineering, and signal engineering optimized the design of electric vehicles. The guidance provided by teachers from different professional backgrounds also expands students' thinking horizons.