Smart Wind Turbine
Smart Wind Turbine
The goal of this project was to produce a prototype that combined mechanical and electrical components with the ideology of sense-think-act as our primary driver for our wind turbine.
Our wind turbine consisted of 4 servos, an arduino nano, 8 AA batteries, a 9 volt battery, a hall effect sensor, and a rotary encoder. These components allowed our wind turbine to move in the direction of the wind, along with rotating the pitch of the blades to allowed a constant rotational speed to be maintained through a variety of wind speeds.
My role within my group involved the manufacturing, electrical, and coding of the project including some CAD work for the housing.
A couple of issues we encountered through the development of our prototype was a power supply problem using the original idea of 4 AA batteries.
Through the use of bearings and slip rings, we were able to reduce the amount of friction between all of the components which aided in the current issues found within the power supply, along with powering each unit individually with a common ground allowed more consistnet and smoother movements.
FDM printing was used exclusivly for this project with course threads used to combine the sections of the base, magents being utlizied for the housings and press fit bearings for the rotational connections. PETG was selected as the material for it's strength, durability and UV resistance.
A continuous rotation servo was used to link with the rotary encoder that measured the direction of the wind. This was done to provide unlimited rotation for the servo and allow for the servo to move without limits.
3 positional servos was used inside of the nose, as seen on the left most photo, and provided a direct link for the blades to pitch. A hall effect sensor was placed on the housing with 2 magnets of oppisite polarity on the nose that clicked the sensor on and off to measure the RPM of the nose and change the servos as a result.
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