PROBLEM
The 1. United States Army is constantly looking to improve the capabilities of all their vehicular systems. Since many of these improvements involve the use of electrical and electronic systems, the increased demand for power is often too much for the engine to supply at an idle speed. As a result the engine experiences excess wear and tear and reduced fuel efficiency. An electronic governor will help reduce the damage caused by these external loads. "Governors are installed as a safety device to limit top speed, as a maintenance reducing device to increase economy, and as a safety accessory to conform with state, local, and insurance regulations."[1] Some of the first governors for automobiles were invented by The Pierce Company in 1913. These early governors were technologically advanced for their time. However, today's products have not improved much since those early models. Most current electronic governors either use analog gauges or no gauges at all. They also have no way to automatically adjust RPM's based on the electrical load of the system. The Army has a definite need for an advanced electronic governor. Without high quality governors on their engines, vehicles experience decreased engine life and fuel efficiency. Replacing a Humvee engine is not cheap, and with the constantly rising price of fuel, these problems quickly add up to a large drain on the military budget. Since the Army is funded by taxes, the taxpayers will ultimately be the ones suffering. Also, most of the electronic governors on the market today are designed to hold the engine at a constant speed. If the load reduces while the engine is still set a higher than needed speed, then excess pollution is created, and fuel is wasted. The creation of a better, more economical electronic governor with added features will help the Army to improve their technology and mobility without negatively affecting the environment. There is an ever increasing push in technology today, to integrate as much functionality into one device as possible. This trend can easily be seen in the realm of automobiles. Vehicles are now built with GPS navigation systems, large multi-speaker stereos, and even televisions integrated for the benefit of the consumer. The United States Army also wants to integrate large, high-power systems, such as Radar, into their vehicles. They quickly realized that they would need a way to guarantee that the engine would always be supplying enough power to these new systems. This is the need that we intend to address. The Army would like to outfit all of the estimated 100,000 Humvees currently in use[2], as well as future Humvees, with our product. Since the speed controller can be easily modified to work with any diesel engine, the market for our product is not limited to the military. A form of RPM controller is used in many utility trucks, fire engines, construction vehicles, and some agricultural equipment. A few products currently on the market offer basic functionality similar to our product. Products for sale by businesses such as P.A.G.E Company, VMAC, and RPM Control Company will allow a user to set the RPM's of the engine to a specific level. However, none of the products currently on the market offer the advanced functionality that we will provide. The ability to automatically increase the RPM's of the engine to the optimum level for any electrical load will not only increase fuel efficiency, but increase engine life
as well. The large, easy-to-read LCD display will make it possible to check the current status of the engine at a glance. Because it is being originally developed for military applications, the product will be able to operate under extreme conditions and is built to last. The Humvee RPM controller will provide the Army with a way to integrate many different high-load systems into their lightweight vehicles without having to worry about negatively affecting engine life or fuel efficiency. The people operating the vehicle will not have to worry about correctly setting the RPM's for every load applied to the engine. Our product provides the capability for a new level of system integration for the Army. This integration will make advanced sensing equipment more mobile, providing for better intelligence. Products currently on the market rely too heavily on user input, which is not an option in the middle of a battle zone. The rugged construction and resistance to extreme environmental conditions, also makes our product uniquely suited for military applications. When a large external electrical load is placed on the Humvee's electrical system, the speed of the engine (RPM's) decreases. This is due to the fact that the alternator is mechanically connected to the engine by means of a belt and pulley. The problem with this reaction is twofold: 1) The decrease in engine speed, combined with an increase in the engine load, produces strain on the engine, resulting in decreased engine life. 2) Because the amount of current produced by the alternator is dependent upon the engine speed, this drop in RPM's results in a decrease in the amount of current generated by the alternator. Our product will sense the engine speed and adjust it to the optimal speed for maximum efficiency based on the amount of current being drawn from the external load. For example, when the external load begins to increase, our product will sense this increase in current flow to the load, and automatically adjust the engine speed to the optimal level. In order to correctly implement an RPM controller, we will have to overcome a few technical problems. The location on the Humvee engine that will provide us with the best possible signal to calculate RPM's must be found. We must also determine the relationship betw...