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| Robert Mawbey has a unique, but proven, one-size-fits-all approach to evee control. |
The students’ projects range from an automated pet feeder to a
telemetry system that can drive any electrical vehicle.
Senior lecturer in Computer Engineering Programmes dr Thamid Quazi
said the projects contributed the most credits towards the student’s honours
degree.
The project nominated for a national tertiary design competition is
a generic platform designed by Robert Mawbey to drive any type of vehicle that
is driven by electric motors.
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| Brian Basset tries is hand at controlling Ashlin Naicker’s robotic arm. |
Mawbey said he decided to build a modular system when
he designed the telemetrics for the UKZN solar race car, so that he did not need
to reinvent the wheel if he wanted to use his system to steer anything from
hull-inspecting submarines to aerial drones.
He proved his system during the 2015 Bridgestone Solar Car Challenge and said the radio controls works up to 1 km, and then spent three weeks and a budget of only ZAR2000, he wrote all software using C#, and build all the hardware using an off-the-shelf tank-track and GPS equipment.
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Other projects that may excite investors are:
- Shivar Dhurgaduth’
smart spectacles that outline moving objects in real time for partially sighted
people;
- Ashlin Naicker designed a robotic picker that can be controlled using any Android phone;
- an app-driven system by Privaan Ramchunder that allows users to allocate
power from a solar panel so that it charged only selected devices;
- Bandile
Mchunu’s induction hot plate that can boil water in suitable plastic bottles
using only solar power; and
- Saing Maulidi's permanent magnet synchronous motor that uses lock-up tables to manage exponential torque, and which can be turn any diesel truck into a diesel-electric hybrid.
