Design and Fabrication of a Pilot Scale Remote Controlled Electric Car Using Additive Manufacturing Approach

Abstract

The study employed an additive manufacturing approach to model the parts of a pilot-scale electric car. A 3D Sketchup tool was used to model the parts of the model electric automobile and was printed using Any cubic i3 Mega 3D printer. A robust design analysis was carried out to determine the necessary parameters required for the motion and stability of the automobile. These include friction, thrusts and aerodynamic forces as well as the power required. The 3D printed parts were then assembled using powerful adhesives. The rechargeable battery-powered car was integrated with a "C" programming language with the aid of ATMEGA 328P-PUmicrocontroller. The results of the performance assessment of the automobile show that the car travelled at the rate of 1 m/s under the monitoring signal receiving a range of 3 m as observed from the infrared remote control. The results obtained from the design calculation indicated that a 3.975 Nm magnitude of torque is required to drive the shaft. Thus, it was possible to achieve an optimal performance since a motor of 10.787 Nm torque specification was used. The study demonstrates the feasibility of indigenous development of emerging autonomous electric cars at a lower cost.