The First Step to Mastery
One of the major requirements from COREN for engineering students is to partake in the Student Work Experience Program during the second and third years of study at any Nigerian university. Over the past seven weeks, I have had the opportunity to gain firsthand experience in the industry. These experiences include both hands-on and research-based activities.
As an Electrical and Electronics Engineering student, I completed the SIWES 1 program at an automobile company in Lagos State, Nigeria. I had the opportunity to work with Boulos Enterprises Limited (BEL) for six weeks. You might wonder what my role as an Electrical and Electronics Engineering student was at an automobile company, but there is more to tell.
During my stay at BEL, I experienced firsthand the coupling and manufacturing of conventional tricycles made in Nigeria. Before my time at BEL, I had developed skills in manipulating a model tricycle made with electronic components such as Arduino, motor drivers, wheels, etc. This led to my interest in how electric tricycles used in other parts of the world are manufactured.
My SIWES 1 program started with this very project, marking the beginning of my journey. I started by decoupling the project and understanding the purpose of every component used. By relating each component to the materials used in the conventional way of coupling tricycles (internal combustion engines), I was able to identify the similarities and differences between what I had built and what I saw in the conventional method, with the help of the workers at the BEL Engineering unit. Although I encountered several problems that posed difficulties in recoupling the project, these served as pointers to potential issues in the manufacturing of electric tricycles.
This review, performed on my prototype of the electric tricycle, led to the planning and mapping out of a structure on how to gain commercial awareness about how electric vehicles as a whole work. The planning process began with the creation of a Gantt chart, detailing the allocation of time and the personnel with whom I would closely collaborate during my research.
Becoming commercially aware involves reading papers related to the topic in question, i.e., the manufacturing of E-tricycles, understanding the rules and standards guiding the production of tricycles (both electric and ICE), knowing manufacturers of different materials in an electric tricycle or vehicle, and gathering data on the basic requirements for producing a working tricycle (both electric and ICE).
To be commercially aware of an industry or product, one requires strong research skills. In the third week of my stay at the BEL production and research unit, I participated in a training session on “Reading a Research Paper and Conducting Successful and Time-Efficient Research” with the Head of the Research and Development Unit, the Training Consultant, and other team members. During the training, I learned how to unpack a research paper and extract the aims and objectives of the researcher. I also learned about each part of the research paper, what to do when reviewing a research paper, and how to carry out backward and forward searches to identify papers closely connected to the subject.
I was tasked with finding papers focused on discussing the core component of a working electric vehicle: “The EV Motor Drive System.”. The electric motor is the major source of power for an electric vehicle’s powertrain. Through my research, I discovered significant differences between industrial motors and those used in electric vehicles. One of the main differences is the need for high torque, high power density, and low speed in the electric vehicle motor.
Identifying the brain of an electric vehicle is just a starting point when it comes to identifying the components of an electric vehicle. Identifying and selecting the appropriate motor drive technologies based on various factors is a key task in the development and design of an electric vehicle. Some of these factors include the cost, geographical location of the development and design, type of electric vehicle to be produced, and the vehicle architecture of the electric vehicle, among others.
Over the years, various motor drive technologies have been introduced into the electric vehicle industry, each with its advantages and disadvantages. During my fourth and fifth weeks at the BEL Research and Development unit, I conducted an in-depth study of the various types of motors used in building an e-tricycle. For this study, I utilized research papers reviewing the different types of DC and AC motors used in the development of electric vehicles. In this extensive study, I came across several types of motors, including DC Motors, Brushless DC Motors (BLDC), In-Wheel motors (which include Radial and Axial Flux Motors), Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors (PMSM), Switched Reluctance Motors (SRM), and others This research served as the first layer of understanding the different types of motors in the EV industry.
To further refine my research, I streamlined my search based on the factors mentioned above. Based on this research, I discovered that in other developing and underdeveloped nations like India, Bangladesh, China, etc., the major type of motor used in the Central Motor Drive Electric Vehicles (CMDEV) was the BLDC motor. The reasons for this selection include the cost of the motor, its high starting torque, and its efficiency. Although the cost is more expensive than that of brushed DC motors, the performance of the motor is much better than that of brushed DC motors. Armed with this knowledge about the optimal motor for designing and developing an electric tricycle, I identified a few manufacturers of BLDC motors and compiled a list.
In the sixth week, I took the opportunity to understand the other components present in the ICE tricycles, like the braking system, which is in place to introduce retardation to the tricycle, the gearing system, the throttle, and other components. This led to research on the other components in the e-tricycles. I found out about the necessary parts, like the battery pack and the battery management system (BMS), which serves as the supply of power, replacing the use of fossil fuel in the ICE. The BMS is used to control the charging and discharging process parameters of the battery. The types of batteries used in the development can differ based on their weight, capacity, operating temperature, etc. The choices of batteries range from lead-acid to lithium-ion and lithium polymer, among others. Another important component is the motor controller, which enables speed and braking control using the lever based on the Hall Sensor. This serves as the main control for the motor and ensures smooth performance.
Finally, in the final week of my SIWES program, I was tasked with drafting a research paper that introduces and explains my E-tricycle prototype and defines my research agenda for the next two years for the design and development of an E-tricycle. I was also asked to write this article, which describes my experience with Boulos Enterprises Limited. Although the research paper is still in the process of being written and edited, this article introduces you to what to look forward to.
What Next?
The period of my SIWES 1 served as a perfect opportunity to gain experience and knowledge on how the research and development world in the engineering industry works. The experience as a whole has been very interesting and intensive. The space was encouraging to work in, and I got to experience the exciting feeling of seeing something being built from start to finish.
Moving forward, I’m looking forward to continuing work on the project. This means that in 2024, I will work on attaining some of the following goals:
- Editing and Reviewing the Research Agenda
- Publishing a Research Paper on the Conceptual Process Involved in the Design and Development of an E-Tricycle
- Over the next three months, I will conduct deep and extensive research on each of the other components of the e-tricycle.
- I plan to publish an article each month to provide updates on the progress of the research and development.
These goals are proposed to be carried out in the next three months. The research paper will provide a finalized agenda to be carried out during the next two years.
Reference
If you are interested in some of the research papers used during the research, check them out below:
- Racewicz, S., Kazimierczuk, P., Kolator, B. and Olszewski, A., 2018, September. Use of 3 kW BLDC motor for light two-wheeled electric vehicle construction. In IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering (Vol. 421, №4, p. 042067). IOP Publishing.
- Deepak, K., Frikha, M.A., Benômar, Y., El Baghdadi, M. and Hegazy, O., 2023. In-Wheel Motor Drive Systems for Electric Vehicles: State of the Art, Challenges, and Future Trends. Energies, 16(7), p.3121.
- Chi-lan, C., Xiao-gang, W., Yue-wei, B., Yan-chun, X. and Kai, L., 2011. Key technologies of EV motor drive system design. Procedia Engineering, 16, pp.356–362.
- Vidhya, H. and Allirani, S., 2021, December. A Literature Review on Electric Vehicles: Architecture, Electrical Machines for Power Train, Converter Topologies and Control Techniques. In 2021 International Conference on Computational Performance Evaluation (ComPE) (pp. 565–575). IEEE.
- Swamy, M. and Kume, T., 2008, May. Present state and a futuristic vision of motor drive technology. In 2008 11th International Conference on Optimization of Electrical and Electronic Equipment (pp. XLV-LVI). IEEE.
Thank you for staying with me till the end. Gracias. If you would like to discuss or ask questions, do well to leave your comments or reach out to me via mail.
