[robocup-small] Proposal for energy budget

Steffen Prüter mail at steffenp.de
Thu Sep 15 04:06:30 EDT 2005


Hi all,

we support a energy budget for the SSL but to restrict the batteries is
the wrong way.

Beng Kiat Ng wrote:
 > Some said current robots cannot be used with this proposal. Well, I think
 > only a slight modification is needed. You need a DC-DC converter. If you
 > need 12 volts, use converter to step up the voltage. For teams using a
 > power hungry board, they will be disadvantaged. Motors need not be changed
 > unless you want better performance like using a lower voltage motor.
 > Remember, it's going to draw more current.

You cannot use DC-DC converter for the big motor current. Except, the DC-DC
converter is the biggest component on the robot. Example: We need a peak
current of 4 ampere at 20V. That means we need an 80W DC-DC converter. Doing
a quick INet search, i found some converters with an effectiveness of about
75% and with heat sink elements they have a size of 5x5cm. Limited batteries
will be a handicap for all teams because they need these converters.

Also, we think that it is not the aim of the SSL to build lightweight
robots. We want to add more intelligence directly on the robot so we
need more sensors and bigger microcontrollers and our robots will be heavier.
Our limit is the diameter and the height of the robot and that is already
restricted in the SSL rules.

At the moment, we have an extra module that measures the current and the
voltage that our robots use. With this, we can calculate the used energy
of every robot. This is a way to check the used energy in SSL without limiting
the batteries. Also, limited robot energy should take the weight of the
robots into account.


regards
Steffen Prueter
CoolRUNners



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