THE UNIVERSITY OF HUDDERSFIELD

School of Computing and Engineering

ASSIGNMENT SPECIFICATION
Module Code NME3522
Module Title Virtual Instrumentation
Course Title/s MSc Engineering Programmes/MEng Electronic Engineering

Assignment Details
Title Virtual Instrument panel for smart electric cars
Weighting 100%
Mode of working for ☒ Individual
assessment task. There should be no collusion or collaboration whilst working on and
subsequently submitting this assignment.
☐ Group
     

Module Leader Dr Violeta Holmes Contact details: v.holmes@hud.ac.uk, 3588

Module Tutor/s Dr Mahmoud Dhimish

Hand-out date 26/10/2020

How to submit your Turnitin, VLE, Brightspace
work
Submission date/s and Report (1000 words) and LabVIEW code 18/12/20, 23:59
times

Expected amount of 102 hours

independent time you
should allocate to
complete this
assessment
Submission type and SAIL assessment, 10 5% weekly assessments (30%=best 6x5%), Report
format (1000 words) 30% and LabVIEW code XXX.vi 40%
Date by which your Report and code 15/01/2020 written feedback using Turnitin rubric
grade and feedback
will be returned

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Your responsibility It is your responsibility to read and understand the University regulations
regarding assessment.
http://www.hud.ac.uk/registry/regulationsandpolicies/studentregs.

Please pay special attention to the assessment regulations (section 4)

on Academic Misconduct

In brief: ensure that you;

1. DO NOT use the work of another student - this includes students
from previous years and other institutions, as well as current students
on the module.
2. DO NOT make your work available or leave insecure, for other
students to view or use.
3. Any examples provided by the module tutor should be appropriately
referenced, as should examples from external sources.
Further guidance can be found in the SCEN Academic Skills Resource
and UoH Academic Integrity Resource module in Brightspace.

If you experience difficulties with this assessment or with time

management, please speak to the module tutor/s, your Personal
Academic Tutor, or the School’s Guidance Team.
(sce.guidance@hud.ac.uk).
Requesting an You are reminded to ‘back-up’ your work as extensions will not be given
Extension for lost work, which includes work lost due to hardware and software
failure/s.

Extension requests will only be approved if you can demonstrate

genuine, unexpected circumstances along with independent supporting
evidence (e.g medical certificate) that may prevent you submitting an
assessment on time.

Submit an extension request via Student Portal within 2 working days of

the due date.

Extension requests, up to a maximum of 10 working days, but typically 1-

5 working days, will be considered provided that there is appropriate
evidence which clearly indicates reasons for the request.

You will have 5 working days after submitting a request to provide the
evidence. Failure to submit evidence will result in the request being
rejected and your work being marked as a late submission.

If you are unable to submit work within the maximum extension period of
10 days, contact the School’s Guidance team
(sce.guidance@hud.ac.uk), as you may need to submit a claim for
Extenuating Circumstances (ECs).

Extenuating An EC claim is appropriate in exceptional circumstances, when an

Circumstances (ECs) extension is not sufficient due to the nature of the request, or it
concerns an examination or In-Class Test (ICT).

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 You can access the EC claim form via MyHud or Registry website;
https://www.hud.ac.uk/registry/extenuatingcircumstancesfaqs where
you can also find out more about the process.

You will need to submit independent, verifiable evidence for your claim
to be considered.

Once your EC claim has been reviewed you will get an EC outcome
email from Registry.  If you are unsure what it means or what you
need to do next, please speak to the Student Support Office – SJ1/01

An approved EC will extend the submission date to the next

assessment period (e.g July resit period).

Late Submission Late submission or report and code, up to 5 working days, of the
(No ECs approved) assessment submission deadline, will result in your grade being
capped to a maximum of a pass mark.

Submission after this period, without an approved extension, will result

in a 0% grade for this assessment component.
Tutor Referral available ☒ Yes: - report and code
☐ No:

 Resources Please note: you can access free office software and you have
1 Tb of free storage space available on Microsoft's OneDrive system.
https://students.hud.ac.uk/it/unimail/office365/
LabVIEW software SJG/02
USB DAQ and Sensors and actuators SJG/02

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 Assignment Title
LabVIEW based Virtual Instrument panel for smart electric cars
1. Assignment Aims

The aim of this assignment is to design and develop a system prototype for Virtual
Instrument panel, or dashboard, for smart electric cars, using LabVIEW, that will
contain the information on car speed, engine temperature, mileage, and warning
lights related to some faulty conditions. It will also estimate and display battery State
of Charge (SoC).
To evaluate dashboard’s operation, you will be using simulated digital and analogue
inputs and outputs from/to sensors and actuators, or connected to USB DAQ device,
and processed in LabVIEW programme.
2. Learning Outcomes:

Knowledge and Understanding:

1. Knowledge and understanding of graphical languages and their application in
system design and simulation.
2. Knowledge and understanding of design requirements of typical industrial
instruments.
.com
Abilities:
3. The ability to design and develop VI codes and apply appropriate tools
necessary to implement a given design problem.
4. The ability to design and develop computer-based systems to emulate a range
of instruments.

3. Assessment Brief

A vehicle control panel, or instrument panel, is usually located directly ahead of a

vehicle's driver, displaying instrumentation and controls for the vehicle's operation. In
addition to conventional car dashboard symbols, in smart electric or hybrid cars
dashboard contains other information and symbols. Additional symbols for electric
cars are “Ready To Drive”, “Limited power”, “Pedestrian alert”, “Low battery” and
“General Electrical fault”. See the explanation of these symbols in the following link
https://www.leasingoptions.co.uk/news/blog/electric-and-hybrid-dashboard-
symbols/6096 .
One of the most important requirements in electric vehicles is Battery Management
System and especially battery state-of-charge (SoC) estimation. Accurately
estimating the state of charge is a challenging task, as the battery has a strong time-
varying and non-linear properties. The SoC of batteries in a battery management
system is like the fuel meter in a conventional fuel car. The main function of the SOC
is to provide information of battery state to the driver.

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Using LabVIEW, design, implement and evaluate a Virtual Instrument panel
prototype for an electric car. The instrument panel (dashboard) should be able to
display car mileage, speed, estimated SoC, engine temperature, and the states of
the system indicators and warning lights.
The basic tasks in this assignment are as follows:
3.1 Estimate battery SoC using the traditional method based on
experiments for Lithium iron battery using Open Circuit Voltage (OCV)
method as seen in figure 1 below.

Figure 1. Open Circuit Voltage (OCV) curve of lithium iron phosphate and lithium
manganese acid battery

Hint: create a look up table based on the diagram in figure 1.

3.2 Data acquisition
o Acquire the values of:
 Car speed – this can be simulated using the potentiometer on
the protoboard
 Open Circuit Voltage for battery State of Charge (SoC)
estimation. This can be simulated using the potentiometer on
the proto-board.
 engine temperature (T) from a temperature sensor.
o Display the values of Speed, SoC, and engine temperature, along with
the states of indicators and relevant symbols displaying warnings.

3.3 Evaluate electric car dashboard using at least the following components
– simulated or on the protoboard.
Analogue inputs (AI)
T - Temperature measurement from a Thermistor.
V – Car velocity (speed) from a Potentiometer
SoC – Voltage for estimation of State of Charge from a Potentiometer.

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 Digital inputs (DI)
Switches for starting the car and fastening seatbelts, or handbrake
when car is stationary.
Digital outputs (DO)
 LEDs Lights and indicators, and status (ON/OFF) corresponding
to the “Ready To Drive”, “Limited power”, “Pedestrian alert” and
“General Electrical fault” states of the system.
 Green LED when SoC is > 12%
 Red when SoC<12%

4. Marking Scheme

Assessment Criterion Weighting %

1. LabVIEW program: Structure and Block Diagram of your 20
code.

2. LabVIEW program: The use of appropriate subVIs. 10

3. LabVIEW program: The clarity, functionality and elegance of 10

your Front Panel design.

4. Report 30

5. SAIL 30

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5. Grading Rubric

Grading Rubric for NME3522 Virtual Instrumentation Assignment

This assignment grading rubric has been developed to show how the assignment will be graded, you should therefore use it to enable you to maximise your
assignment grade in all areas. Post grading: the rubric can be used as feedback to show the aspects/areas that would be expected in any future related
assignment, to gain a higher grade.

Awarded Grade
0 1 2 3 4 5
Criterion 1 – LabVIEW program: Structure and Block Diagram of your code: weighting 25%

Analogue inputs (AI) All AI are used and

Several AI are used
(5%) Few AI are used with Structured fully as
Minimal use of AI with reasonable
limited functionality given in the
functionality
Assignment sheet
Digital inputs (DI) Several DI are used All DI are used and
(5%) Few DI are used with with reasonable Structured fully as
Minimal use of DI
limited functionality functionality given in the
Assignment sheet
Digital outputs (DO) No Several DO are All DO are used and
(5%) evidence Few D0 used with used with Structured fully as
Minimal use of D0
provided limited functionality reasonable given in the
functionality Assignment sheet
Loops and Functions Block diagram showing Block diagram showing Detailed information Extensive
(L&F) the main L&F but no or the main circuit L&F and reasoning for all information and
(5%) Minimal use of L&F minimal accompanying with accompanying the main use of F&L reasoning for all the
information. information regarding main use of F&L
each.
Block Diagram Layout Confused layout with Inadequately presented reasonably presented Structured with Easy to follow
(5%) no obvious structure. - untidy annotations and throughout and
practical layout neatly presented

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 Awarded Grade
0 1-2 3-4 5-6 7-8 9-10
Criterion 2 - LabVIEW program: The use of appropriate subVIs: weighting 10%

SubVIs No
Confused use of Inadequate use of Reasonable use of Reasonable use of Accurate use of
(10%) evidence
subVIs with no obvious subVIs with no obvious subVIs with limited subVIs with accurate subVIs with generic
provided
functionality functionality functionality functionality functionality

Awarded Grade
0 1-2 3-4 5-6 7-8 9-10
Criterion 3 - LabVIEW program: The clarity, functionality and elegance of your Front Panel design: weighting 10%

Front Panel The front panel is

(10%) The front panel is easy to follow
The front panel is
structured with almost throughout and
Basic presentation of structured with all
Only minimal all the main neatly presented;
the main functionality required functionality
presentation of the functionality as in the easy to follow the
No of the assignment as in the assignment
main functionality of assignment main functionality of
evidence specification; limited specification;
the assignment specification; the developed
provided use of numeric accurate use of
specification; focused reasonable use of program/application;
control/indicator and numeric
layout of front panel numeric extensive and
graph/chart control/indicator and
control/indicator and accurate use of
graph/chart
graph/chart numeric
control/indicator and
graph/chart

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 Awarded Grade
0 2 2 3 4 5
Criterion 4 - Report: weighting 30%

Structure + Confused layout with

Basic report structure. easy to follow
Presentation no obvious structure. Basic report structure – Accurate report
Inadequately throughout and
(5%) Illegible/untidy in many reasonably presented structure
presented - untidy neatly presented
sections
Theory & Research Basic theory and Limited theory and
(5%) background of background of
Confused theory and Extensive theory and background of
LabVIEW is provided, LabVIEW is provided,
background of LabVIEW is provided, with extensive
with minimal reference with accurate reference
LabVIEW is provided reference to assignment specification
to assignment to assignment
specification specification
Overall design Only minimal Basic explanation of
Basic explanation of the
(5%) reference to the the some aspects of Extensive explanation of the circuit design
No VI code and reasons for
functionality of the the VI code and and detailed reasons for circuit select
evidence circuit select.
design presented reasons for selection
provided
Analysis of the final Limited results for the Results for the final Results for the final and
design operation final design design given for most interim designs given Results documented for all sections
(5%) circuit blocks – no for most circuit blocks – Clearly documented/analysed
analysis minimal analysis
Conclusions and Extensive detailed
Future work Limited/inadequate conclusions – not Basic conclusions given conclusions with
Extensive detailed
(5%) accounting for achievements and or not relating – related to original reference to
conclusions
to original Aims and Objective (A&Os) A&Os possible Future
Work
Diagrams (schematics Extensive number of diagrams/schematics
Larger number of Limited number of
etc.) Limited unclear Relevant
diagrams supplied but diagrams/schematics Limited
(5%) diagrams labels/annotation
not well drawn (untidy) with additional labels labels/annotation
provided in all cases

Awarded Grade

9
 0-5 0-5 0-5 0-5 0-5 0-5
Criterion 5 - SAIL: weighting 30%

SAIL Weekly score Weekly score Weekly score Weekly score Weekly score
Weekly
(30%)
score
6 Best graded SAIL
components

10