open source project for battery-ultracapacitor control software

[Timothy Hitchcock]

The CREATE laboratory at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh PA USA has issued a call for contributions to an open source coding project to develop an algorithm to control BEV + Ultracap.

"ChargeCar is dedicated to open, community-centered teamwork for making electric vehicles practical and affordable enough to revolutionize urban commuting." 

http://chargecar.org/home

"ChargeCarPrize is a contest to design an intelligent policy algorithm that will decide how to use the supercapacitor in ChargeCar. Given a demand or regeneration from the motor, as well as inputs such as speed, acceleration, GPS coordinates, and online feeds or databases, the policy must decide how the demand is met from the battery and/or capacitor. We're hoping that with your help and intuition, we can improve the efficiency, longevity, and range of electric vehicles." 

"We've created a Java simulation that will take GPS data from real drivers and test your algorithm on their trips using a theoretical electric vehicle. Download the software (Java Eclipse Project) and the data files to get started testing and inventing!" 

"Email your submissions directly to us below. Please include your author or team name, policy name, and percent i² reduction on the most recent month of data. Submissions will be tested on our end to confirm leaderboard-worthy results and also to award monthly prizes. If your policy is contained in a single class, simply attaching the Java file is fine. If you have additional dependencies or classes, please combine them into a single JAR file." 

http://chargecar.org/invent

======================

I've been assured by a team leader, Alex, that the project will be fair and open. See his reply quoted below:

As we currently stand, at the end of each
judging cycle, all code will be freely released on our website. The
leaderboard will link directly to the submission's code, and there
will be a Source link on the chargecar.org/invent page that will go
into a directory browse of the source code, organized by author.  We
haven't decided on a license yet, but it would likely be GNU GPL v2,
Eclipse Public License, or the New BSD License.

We aren't associated with the automotive industry at all.  If someone
in the automotive industry wanted to use and modify one of the leading
algorithm submissions, that is just fine, anything that might improve
the efficiency of vehicles is in the spirit of the project.  The
correct license will protect the rights of the author.

As a university project, we have no means or desires of private gain.
Much of our funding for our project is contingent on engaging the
community and providing training to local mechanics to create
conversions themselves, using our freely available designs.

On the engineering side of our project, we are creating a recipe for
electric vehicle conversions, starting in a honda civic.  We have
local mechanics lined up waiting for the result and the training we
will provide.  I'm not sure of our plans for widescale public release,
but I can speak to the engineers and see if they are willing to write
up a document/website/etc.. that explains the conversion and the
custom parts (mounting brackets), maybe for those we could post 3D
models online (like a SolidWorks file).  For the local release, we
will train local mechanics, as well as source many of the parts that
are cheaper to buy in bulk like the batteries, brackets, and custom
mating plates.  These will all be given at-cost, with no profit for
our project or the university.

Timothy Hitchcock

Chief Magical Connector

eCars Now! California

(recently relocated to the Silicon Valley!)

--
Be happy. Don't worry.  >> Meher Baba

"...all limitations are self-imposed." >> Abraham-Hicks

"If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?" >> Albert Einstein