New Year, new goals
Moving the goal posts isn’t easy. Especially moving them askew. New thinking: MVP ELTRA is a range-extending fuel-cell vehicle. It uses the advantages of hydrogen to counter the disadvantage of batteries (range, weight, cost, lifespan). There is an COTS automotive grade fuel cell assembly available in the USA (Toyota Mirai), and for practical purposes this works as a demonstrator concept. We’re ready (I think) for that “works-like” full-scale prototype.
BUT, WHAT SHOULD ELTRA LOOK LIKE?
IMO, there is a significant ‘gimmick’ power in having a rear-facing display, because it enables social dynamics between the ELTRA vehicle and others, leading to the advantages of ELTRA being advertised/shared widely in actual use. Is that going to be a market-loser?
Thermodynamics dictates that we should consider the heat engine primarily and airflow/cooling is a major design point.
Additionally ELTRA should have a mast so as to be able to see above/around the vehicle in front of it and project that information to drivers behind, who (presumably) will appreciate being aware of the traffic situation up the road ahead and not staring at the back of a trailer.
Final major design point - ELTRA might best have two dynamic contact points (one on each side so as to be able to direct the center of effort or, more broadly, control the inertia of the vehicle being pushed). Is that part of MVP version 1.0? Or more specifically, target the hitch ball or the hitch receiver with ELTRA’s connection point (either can be modified into the other with little trouble[?])
Not-final major design point - there are (likely) only 2 degrees of freedom in the ELTRA system underway: Torque at each wheel/ground interface. In other words, any control system has only 2 (major) outputs, being commands to the left and right traction subsystems. Those 2 DOF can also be expressed as a baseline torque value plus a left-right bias. Certainly the baseline torque value, at the very least, ought to be controlled fairly well by an AI subject to various constraints. With AI control possible, is there any point in spending a lot of effort designing sophisticated sensor systems when a simple optical camera will do? In other words, give the AI the “true” cost function and it will do its best to minimize the total “cost” of each trip by varying the left and right torque values according to a lot of parameters.
First of all, these might be inputs such as current speed (KE), recent speed trend, and whether the brake is activated.
Next parameters might include intertial, GPS or barimetric (altitude trend) data to determine expected changes in PE (are we going up- or down-hill?)
Other parameters might include a calculation or assessment of the mass or inertia of the vehicle-trailer system, the temperature or state of charge or fuel of the system, the available traction at the wheel-ground interfaces, a visual assessment (by AI) of traffic situation up ahead, other optical camera data, including what other nearby vehicles are doing; networked information from other ELTRA in the field, and so forth.