Auto rickshaws are small, three-wheeled vehicles which are used extensively in many Asian countries to transport people and goods. The vehicles are small and narrow allowing for easy maneuverability in the congested city streets of Asian metropolises. Because of their inexpensive operation, auto rickshaws are also used as taxis in India. Despite the advantages of their sleek design, auto rickshaws have become nuisances in Indian cities because of their contribution to air and noise pollution. The inefficient engines used, typically two-stroke or four-stroke designs, have little if any pollution control.

With the generous financial support of Atul and Kalpana Thakkar, a student team at IIT under the supervision of Dr. Ali Emadi has set out to make auto rickshaws a springboard for environmental consciousness in India. The team’s approach is two-fold: replace the existing hydrocarbon-powered vehicles with solar-electric hybrid vehicles; and recharge the batteries using renewable energy sources.

Major accomplishments have been achieved by students and professional researchers at the Power Electronics and Motor Drives Lab paired with university-wide Entrepreneurial Interprofessional Projects (EnPRO) teams. The EnPRO program brings together businesses and engineering majors to explore the vital link between business and technology. Students who enroll in an EnPRO project develop new products and services and make them commercially viable in an attempt to solve broad societal problems through their business strategies.

The teams began by researching the auto rickshaw’s cultural and economical roles in India as well as the political and cultural atmosphere surrounding the issues of renewable and sustainable technologies. The market research team collected more than 700 surveys in two Indian cities, the results of which steered further economic and design research. In addition, GPS data was recorded from auto rickshaws in major Indian cities. The survey and GPS data collected was used to develop an auto rickshaw driving cycle (a plot of speed versus time) in large Indian cities. The driving cycle provided performance demand characteristics, which were used to develop a model of the ideal vehicle and determine the necessary parts for the prototype.

One of the proposed vehicle designs features a hybrid ultra-capacitor/battery energy storage device, solar roof, switched reluctance propulsion motor, and electronic differential. Based on the simulation results, the vehicle is expected to cover over 80 miles on a single battery charge, well above the daily usage of the vehicle. A team of graduate and undergraduate students has already built the first prototype testing some of the proposed technologies.

The team is also developing a design for a grid-connected solar-powered battery recharge station to charge the vehicle’s batteries in an environmentally friendly way. The batteries will be charged at a remote location, called a “mother” station. The architecture of choice for the mother station consists of PV’s and a grid tie to provide the energy to recharge the batteries. To further minimize pollution, batteries will be transported to and from the customer via all-electric trucks.

Priscilla Mulhall graduated from IIT in 2008 with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a minor in entrepreneurship; she continues as a master’s degree student in the same field. Even though she was used to an intense learning environment in high school, like most new students, Mulhall was intimidated when she began her college career. “Truthfully, I was very intimidated at first, thinking that I could never accomplish the kinds of things that IIT students have,” she says. “But since I’ve been here, it has opened my eyes to the fact that I’m a great asset to any research team. Now I’m an integral part of the projects I had thought were out of my reach.”

Eventually getting over her initial jitters, Mulhall has played a major role in the multidimensional auto rickshaw project underway at IIT. The three-wheeled auto rickshaws are used in India as taxis, and the project at IIT involves making an all-electric, designing for the Indian market. Commenting on the project’s intrigue she says, “Part of what attracted me to this project was all of the intricacies involved, all the layers of both business and technical engineering we’ve investigated. I’ve seen it from the inside out now, and it’s infinitely interesting.” Mulhall helped to publish several papers about this research and presented the findings at the 2007 IEEE Vehicle Power and Propulsion Conference in Arlington, Texas.