Supercapacitor Bank

Advanced Robotics at the University of Washington (ARUW) is a non-profit student organization interested in providing hands-on engineering and computer science experience to our 70+ members by competing in the international RoboMaster tournament which functions as a set of engineering problems wrapped in an eSport style tournament targeting enemy pressure plates. To compete we build a team of nine cutting edge robots such as the drone, and guided dart launcher while also designing our own PCBs and automatic navigation systems!  Feel free to visit https://aruw.org/team to watch "A Glimpse into Advanced Robotics."

In-game power constraints are placed on all nine of our robots which are tackled by the hardware team using an energy storage system, typically a bank of supercapacitors capped at 2000J (nominal). This system allows them to draw and store maximum power even when the robot is stationary allowing the robot to utilize the stored energy without restriction. This system adjusts to changing energy demands by maintaining various constant power levels throughout the match and otherwise performs as a “sprint” function.  

When the shift key controlling the sprint function is unpressed the robot draws on battery power and stores extra energy that it does not consume in the bank. However, when the shift key is pressed, the robot will continue to draw the power limit from the batteries but the power to the motors taps into the stored energy from the capacitor bank. Three critical components are involved in the energy flow process, encompassing extraction from the battery, storage, and release. Overall, the system consists of an input converter, supercapacitor array, output converter, discharging circuit, and a safe path. If you would like to learn specifics about voltage, converter pathways, or cell structure please feel free to email me back.  

ARUW would greatly appreciate support from PCB Way to support our mission of spreading STEM education and practical experience to college students by helping to fund our supercapacitor bank project. More funding would allow more students to interact with the hardware system as additional parts could be purchased for simultaneous projects. Additionally, having the ability to produce more iterations of designs would allow us to produce more ambitious designs that have functions at the edge of our capabilities that we would be otherwise unable to develop with more limited resources.  

Thank you for the time and consideration!