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Jeff Wilson         jwilson@vtc.edu
Dave Carlson   dcarlson@vtc.edu

                               
                               

VTC ELM Senior Project:

"Professor Windmill"

A Wind Energy Demonstration System 





Background: 
    

  • Prosepective Students thinking of coming to Vermont Technical College know little about work done
 by real VTC students.
      • Showing off work done by students is an excellent way to attract more prospective students to 
 apply at VTC.  Many of the senior projects that are completed by VTC students are not able to 
 be interacted with by anyone outside of VTC.
    

  • The wind energy industry lacks a sophisticated model of wind power.
    • 

      Wind turbine displays at wind energy conferences currently consist of an AC motor that plugs
 into the wall.  This motor mounted on a model tower and is geared down to turn turbine blades.  
 This gives the onlooker something to look at, but nothing more.



Problem Statement: 
 To design and build a demonstrational wind turbine display that is:
    

  • Modeled after utility systems
    • 

  • Scaled Down
    • 

  • Realistic
    • 

  • Interactive


Target:
 Our project is aimed at two types of people:

     
  • The Prospective Student
    • 

  • The Industrial Wind Energy Business Man
 

Solution:
     

  • 1:200 Scale
    • 

  • Variable Wind Conditions with 7 fans
    • 

  • Automated Wind Tracking Turbine With Control Algorithm
    • 

  • Web-Based Interface
    • 

  • Remote Monitoring and Control Over the Internet


General System Overview:: 
	This system overview for Professor Windmill encorperates all of the major aspects of our project 
 and how every major part interacts with the others.





How It Works:
    

  1. A user interacts via the internet to our server. The server then sends commands to a microcontroller. 
The internet connection is optional, but can allow anyone in the world to interact with out system.  
Without an internet connection, the server can be accessed directly similar to a console station if desired.
    2. 


  2. The microcontroller recieves a command from the server and turns fans on and off based on that command.  
These fans blow wind across an open area towards a wind direction sensor.  As different fans turn on and 
off, the direction the wind is coming from changes.
    3. 


  3. The change in wind direction is noticed by the wind direction sensor and a separate microcontroller is
notified.  This microcontroller controls a motor that changes a turbine's position in the wind. This 
position change is monitored by a position sensor on the turbine's tower and fed back to the microcontroller. 
The idea is that as the wind changes direction, the turbine will react and track the wind on its own without 
any physical link to the user.  The only connection between the two halfs of the system is the motion of the 
air.
    4. 


  4. While all of this is happening, data is fed back through the server about what is going on in the system.  
A voltage level from the turbine's generator is taken via a low cost sound card (The reason we're using a 
sound card is becuase data acquisition cards are very expensive, and we do not need all of thier added 
features for simply taking one voltage reading).  A webcam also is capturing images of the overall system, 
showing the reactions of the fans and turbine.  This data is displayed in real-time to the user as a voltage 
graph from the turbine's generator, and also an updating real-time image of what's happening with the Professor 
Windmill system.
    5. 

Professor Windmill > 2004