SOLAR POWERED ELECTRIC CAR

ABSTRACT:

A solar car is a light weight, low power vehicle designed and built with a single
purpose in mind - racing or "raycing", a combination of "race" and "ray" from the
sun. It has limited seating (one or two people) and cargo capacity, can only be
driven during the day and does not represent a practical means of transportation.
It does, however, offer an excellent opportunity to develop future technologies
that can be applied to practical applications.

BLOCK DIAGRAM:
DESCRIPTION:

The car operates by the collection and conversion of sunlight into

electricity using solar cells mounted on the vehicle, which is then delivered to the
car's batteries or motor. Generally, a car can operate on only 700-1500 watts of
power, which is roughly the same amount of power used by a hair drier. With
such small amounts of energy available, efficiency is crucial. Aerodynamic drag,
weight, and rolling resistance all influence the car's design.

The objective of this project is to provide a general idea regarding the various
components and working of the solar car.

Here we implement a solar panel with 12V capacity of delivering up to 5watts of

power during day time. The power from the panel is given to a DC-DC converter
which automatically corrects the output voltage level to a fixed DC value by
operating in Boost mode or Buck Mode. Then the controller drives the DC motor
of the vehicle by sending commands to the motor driver circuit. Thus the vehicle
can be driven freely using the solar electric power.