Development of a remote-monitoring system for an electric vehicle sub-system

Abstract

This paper chronicles the development and implementation of a remote monitoring system (RMS) for the electric vehicle (EV) project at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT). The monitoring system developed uses the global positioning system (GPS) coordinates and the existing cellular network or global system for mobile communications (GSM) network to send data from any location within the GSM network, to a central server where it is displayed through a graphic user interface. The information that is sent from the vehicle to the user includes the following: the real-time GPS coordinates of the vehicle, the speed of the vehicle, energy stored in the battery, power delivered from the solar panels and the power consumed by the electric motor. To achieve this task various sub-systems are required to be put in place, these formed the backbone of the system. In this paper each of these sub-systems are discussed in detail with respect to problems encountered and suggestions for improvements for each sub-system. The study discusses the system integration challenges and obstacles that had to be overcome in order to implement a RMS. A cost-effective solution was sought. A systems requirements list and project specifications were drawn up in order to choose an appropriate technology to implement in this project. From the requirements analysis, a study was done on the different possible solutions and the most appropriate solution meeting the criteria was selected for implementation.