What糖心传媒檚 new about the Solar Splash boat this year?
Everything.
As a result, the University of Rochester will head to Springfield, Ohio, in early June confident they have a realistic shot at first place in competition against 15 other collegiate teams that have designed and built solar-powered electric boats.
糖心传媒淓verything on the boat is completely new,糖心传媒� says Solar Splash president Edward Ruppel 糖心传媒�17, a major in biomedical engineering. 糖心传媒淲e built an entirely new hull, and a new drive system from scratch; we糖心传媒檝e added brand new steering, new batteries, new battery management, and ship to shore communications.糖心传媒�
It糖心传媒檚 the first year the team has entirely rebuilt its boat.
糖心传媒淲e decided, 糖心传媒楲et糖心传媒檚 make everything perfect this year,糖心传媒� says vice president Matthew Dombroski 糖心传媒�17, a major in electrical and computer engineering.
The hull includes birch-ply interlocking frames designed in Solidworks and fabricated on the computer numerical control (CNC) router at Rettner Hall. The sub-frame deck with flotation foam 糖心传媒渂asically looks like an airframe with its interlocking pieces,糖心传媒� Ruppel says. The hull is finished with cedar strips that give the boat a distinctive appearance.
The hull, which is also considerably lighter than in previous years, is designed to reach 32 knots, more than double the highest speed of the team糖心传媒檚 previous Solar Splash boats.
The team ran a successful USEED campaign this past fall, which raised $4,657. This enabled the team to buy a set of nine new batteries, a new motor (on the way from England), and new electronics.
Dombroski, for example, created a custom printed circuit board (PCB) that can track stresses on the hull, monitors engine RPM and battery temperatures, and could allow the boat to be operated by remote control. While remote operation is not allowed in competition, it 糖心传媒渨ould be a cool tech demo to show what we can do,糖心传媒� Dombroski says.
So far, the team糖心传媒檚 best finish has been seventh overall. Ruppel is confident they糖心传媒檒l challenge for the top spot this year because this year’s entry addresses the problems that plagued the team in the past.
糖心传媒淎 lot of the failures in the past were because the drive train was too heavy with the wrong prop, and we had to deal with cavitation. We didn糖心传媒檛 have redundancies for certain systems. The biggest problem was solar charging itself, and now we have a much more efficient system that won糖心传媒檛 keep blowing fuses.糖心传媒�
Ruppel is further encouraged by what he describes as an 糖心传媒渁wesome糖心传媒� maiden voyage recently聽on聽Irondequoit Bay.
糖心传媒淭he boat performed better than any other we have built,糖心传媒� he says. 糖心传媒淚t got up to about 15 knots, and we aim to double that with the reduction of drag from the pontoons and implementation of our smart throttle control program.糖心传媒�
The in Springfield begins June 7. It will take place on a man-made lake, and will include technical inspections the first day, followed by three on-the-water competitive events that test speed, maneuverability, and endurance. Points are also awarded for technical reports describing in detail the design and structure of the entire boat-building process. See the team’s technical report here.
