WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Athula Kulatunga, who is an associate professor of electrical engineering technology at Purdue University, has turned a tricycle into an electric powered, energy-testing machine, which he intends to use to help develop new technologies for green vehicles.
With the financial support of General Motors , Kulatunga has built a plug-in electric bicycle which is used as a learning platform for power electronics and applied research on controllers, charging devices, battery configurations and motor drives.
Kulatunga’s tricycle features a reclining seat, pedals in the front and handlebars on the side for steering. Kulatunga doesn’t believe the general public would be willing to ride it as is – it’s being used to conduct research only. The trike is powered by electric charge and can be ridden on its own or connected to a data-collection test stand, where researchers analyzes power usage and efficiency.
Kulatunga is assisted by graduate students Sandun Kuruppu and Jeremiah Dole, and undergraduates Robert Murphy, Fred Chou and Ryan Pickens.
The trike can travel up to 35 or 40 mph, because of its low center of gravity, and handles corners and turning easily. It’s run by a brushless DC motor attached to the back wheels,and powered bylead-acid batteries, located underneath the bike.
The trike is extremely energy efficient, because it is equipped with ultracapacitors, which help to capture energy that would typically be lost during such actions as braking.
An ultracapacitor “smooths out” and absorbs much of the energy, which can then be transferred to power the vehicle,” Kulatunga said. “If perfected, ultracapacitors can extend the driving distance of batteries.”
Kulatunga said further modifications to the tricycle will be made periodically as he and his students conduct further research.
Purdue’s International Rectifier Power Electronics Development and Application Lab, known as IR-PEDAL, which focuses on energy-efficiency-related applied research in three main areas: motion controls, power conversions and audio amplifiers, built the tricycle.
Current projects in the lab include working with American Electric Power to study how large power transmission fuses and capacitors behave and why they fail, developing devices to detect and communicate the failing components in the power grid, and research on how to improve the efficiency of brushless, electronically controlled DC motors that could eventually replace mechanically controlled motors.
Source: Purdue University
