IEEE PELS Photovoltaic-Powered Cannon Competition

The Photovoltaic-Powered Cannon Competition is a new contest that is to be a feature of the 1997 Power Electronics Specialists Conference sponsored by the IEEE Power Electronics Society. The goal of the competition is to promote student interest in power electronics related areas such as alternative energy, efficicient energy conversion and storage, control and mechatronics.

The final version of the contest rules was formalized effective November 1, 1996, after all comments and suggestions were received by the deadline of October 25. The rules are

Contest to be held at PESC 97, St. Louis, Missouri, June 22-27, 1997.

Open to any full- or part-time IEEE student member.

Each participating team must be accompanied by a faculty advisor, to be nominated at the time of entry. Each team will receive two complimentary student registrations to PESC 97.

Object is to use radiant energy from an incandescent lamp to propel a 25.4-mm (1 inch), 64.7-g steel ball through the air from a 2-m pedestal, obtaining the maximum possible range after the best of three attempts.

Detailed Rules

1. The device must not have any initial stored energy of any kind, for either propulsion or control purposes, but the initial position of the ball within the device can be chosen by the contestant. This rule will be strictly enforced through inspection by the judges.

2. The device will be mounted by the contestants to a sheet of 3/4-inch plywood supplied at the contest. This will then be covered by four plexiglas sheets to form a cube of internal side 20 cm, with an open front (a diagram and photograph will be added to this page when available)

3. No external energy supply or control (e.g., a microwave link) is permitted.

4. The contestants must provide a means (via the plywood base, in which holes may be drilled) for dissipating any energy stored internally in devices such as capacitors and springs. This will be done after an opaque cover has been placed over the cube.

5. The opaque cover will be removed and the cube exposed to light for 15 s, with the front cover of the cube open. After this time the front cover will close. In the event that no contestant can produce a satisfactory performance, additional rounds with longer exposures may take place.

6. No part of the device, apart from the ball, may extend outside the 20-cm cube at any time.

7. The ball must be ejected while the front cover is open, otherwise a score of zero for the round will be obtained.

8. The distance travelled will be determined by the perpendicular distance from the front edge of the cube to the first point of impact of the ball. Note that the top and sides of the cube will be extended in the form of an external shield to constrain the flight of the ball to the forward and downward directions.

9. The order of the contestants will be determined by drawing lots. Three rounds will follow in the same order. Failure to provide a launch device within two minutes of being called will result in a score of zero for that round.

10. The energy source will consist of ambient light plus a 100-W incandescent lamp with a reflector situated 1 m above the center of the top face of the cube. The exact specifications of this source remain to be determined, but it is likely that a standard 12-V halogen reflector lamp will be the most convenient source.

11. Sponsorship of the competition (principally to pay for the travelling expenses of contestants) would be considered by the committee and interested sponsors should send a message to the address below. Sponsorship of individual teams is also possible.

12. Entries should be made by e-mail to the address below by May 9, 1997. They should include the names of the team members, identifying the two students requiring free registration and the accompanying faculty member. An estimate of the projectile travel distance should also be provided for planning purposes (this will be kept confidential).

13. The day before the contest, teams will provide the judges with a one-page description of their device, describing how they have complied with the zero-energy-storage requirement. After the contest the devices will be put on display and the descriptions and performances will be made available to future teams.

There has been discussion of providing separate prizes for teams using commercial or development photovoltaic cells. It has been decided that for the first year there will be only one classification and any energy conversion device is acceptable. This will be reviewed on an annual basis.

W. G. Dunford, Department of Electrical Engineering, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver V6T 1Z4 Canada

TEL: +1-604-822-6660, FAX: +1-604-822-5949, e-mail: wgd@ee.ubc.ca

Editor's note: This article was extracted from the contest WWW site http://www.ee.ubc.ca/~pelscomp

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