Day 9

We spent all day yesterday getting the robot ready to do autonomous, solar power test running on two panels.  The morning and afternoon were spend editing the code to fine tune the power tracking for the two panels.  Then in the even, with sun very low in the sky, we ran an autonomous run around the taxiway of the skiway that the planes land on.  The two powered solar panels were placed on the front and back of the robot.  It barely had enough power to do to the course and get back to the garage with the sun being so low and only have two panels working, but with that said it ran with just two panels!

Ben and I working preparing for the next solar test.

Ben walking the CR during solar power test.

CR in for the night waiting for the 3rd BC to be installed.

Day 8

We went back out this morning to run another autonomous grid in the same area but instead of east/west lines it did north/south lines.  Also this time the robot did not stop at each waypoint which smoothed out its line of travel.

CR doing waypoint following, can see the tracks from the previous day's run.

After lunch we took the solar panels back off and tested Ben's newly built inverter circuit which worked great once everything was connected properly!  I also started repair on the damaged solar panel which will hopefully look almost as good as new.  When we testing the boost converters (BC) we realized that something was wrong with our power tracking.  Today we did some simple test and discovered that some program channels were wrong which was an easy fix once we knew what the problem was.  With that last problem solved surrounding the BC we are confidant that we will be able to run on solar power real soon!  This evening we went through the power program to scrub out any other little problems that would improve its overall operation.  After doing that all of our brains hurt and we are ready for bed to start tomorrow fresh to solve the next set of problems, but hopefully very soon we will be watching CR work while we have our tea in the big house.

Day 7

Assembled the robot again and added the GPR instrument on the inside on top of the robot chassis while it drag it behind it.  We successfully ran a 50 meter grid with 5 meter between length autonomously today!  The only problem was when we hit a half buried bamboo pole that cause the Cool Robot (CR) to get stuck.  Some damage was caused to the side panel substrate a little, but NOT the cells.  The small bummer I built prior to going out did seem to help, I guess I need to make it the full length of the side panel.

Alden checking GPR instruments inside CR.

CR stuck on bamboo pole, circled in red.

Walking the CR home after the running the grid.

Sleeping in a Tent

You might be wondering how we live way up in the middle of nowhere with nothing surrounding us except for a LOT of snow?  Well I will try and cover different parts of day and what we do throughout this blog.  This time I will talk about where we sleep; in a tent!  What?!  I think they are called oven tents because they actually get hot during the day although at night they are not the warmest things to sleep in they are still warmer than sleeping outside.  Inside each tent is a cot with a some sleeping pads and on top of that you put your sleeping bags.  In my case I have one inside the other for when it get really cold at night!  The lowest temperature I have seen so far is -17F, but when it is windy it is colder and the tents are noisy.  Also with the tents it is bright orange inside them all of the time, as the sun never really sets during the summer, so you will need something to cover your eyes if you want any kind of darkness.

Tent city or the pumpkin patch.

The inside of my tent.

Day 6

We continue to test the boost converters (BC), with each test we do we grow more confidant that they are working!  As we are testing the BC in the robot with a solar panel we are also taking down many measurements to better calibrate the readings that the rabbit board (computer) uses to track power from the solar panels.  The problems we have left to fix appear to be just software fixes now which shouldn't be to hard to fix.

Ben and Jim taking various readings from the robot.

Side solar panel placed outside while robot stays indoors.

Day 5

Jim went out with Alden this morning to collect some GPS points and help Alden with finding a drainage channel in the snow by digging a pit and then running over it with the GPR to see if they can see using that device.  Mean while Ben continued to test the boost converters and I siliconed in the honeycomb gaps in the robot chassis.  Smelly and messy stuff!

Alden pointing to drainage channel in the snow.

In the afternoon Jim and I tested a side and top solar panel to find the power curve of each.  It was really a nice day for doing such a test with the panels getting about 1200-1300 W/m^2 of solar irradiance.

Side solar panel with me behind it getting ready to test.

Top solar panel.

This evening I finished tapping the edges of the robot chassis lid so the robot chassis make over is now done and it is ready to go as soon as we are ready with the solar power.

Day 4

We got one booster converter working!  Which means that we can run at least one solar panel right now, a very good thing.  I realized that I may have gotten a little to technical last time for most of the reader so I will try to keep it more simple.  First Ben fixed the inverter problem which was pretty easy and then a bench test of the boost converter was conducted to make sure that one was working the way we expected it too. While that was being done I finished taping the chassis box edges and created a stand for a side panel using Alden's camera tripod.

Bench testing boost converter.

The first time we tested a boost converter in the robot we took the whole setup outside which was very cumbersome.  For the next time we left the robot where it was and ran some very long wires to solar panel so that only the panel needs to go outside.  But in the case of a late evening test all we needed to do was just open the garage door cause the sun will shine directly in at that point.

Testing boost converter in robot
with solar panel connected.