Experience a day with KTH Formula Student
Competing in FSUK-Silverstone
On the 20th to the 23rd of July
SELF-DRIVEN ELECTRIC CAR AY
EN W E R G THE E C A R TO
FACING THE CHALLENGES WHEN DEVELOPING AN AUTONOMUS VEHICLE
2017
Design and Layout made by Ping Lรถnngren and Nanitza Gonzalez Allendes Pictures taken and Text written by Team Members
This picture taken by Jann Lipka
Contents
Project Manager Erik Nilsson “Our students are part of this project to become better engineers after graduation. We collaborate with the industry to be able to build a car and compete with it. During the project we become team players with great communication and collaboration skills. We learn about people, culture and how it is to work as a real business. We are ready to face any challenges that our upcoming carreers serves us after our Formula Student contributions.”
Formula Student in Silverstone
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Last Year’s Race Report
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Timeplan for eV13
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A Test Day is Performed
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Driverless
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Sustainability
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Did you know that the KTH Formula Student logo symbolize the transition from life to death.
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Technical Integrator Alexander Magnusson
Manufacturing Manager Deniz Hadzalic
“We are looking forward to build our best electric car ever. This will be achieved by improving our already existing systems and components. Instead of starting over from scratch focus on quality, testing and evaluation. What make this project the best experience is the collaboration between the different technical disciplines within the team. Instead of only try to optimize your own subsystem, the team must collaborate between the subgroups to find compromises that gives the best overall performance.”
“Keep in mind, the only reward our team members get is knowledge. That is why they will become among the best in the business after graduation. Determined students with pure will, ambition and a passion for challenges is the only way to make a nonprofit project of this size possible. That is why we are so proud of our team, and my job involves reminding our members of that. The only place where knowledge and experience comes before work is in the dictionary.”
Formula Student in Silverstone O
n the 20th to 23rd of July KTH Formula Student will be competing in Europe’s largest motorsport competition created for educational purpose, Formula Student (FSUK). Engineering students from all over the world gather to compete. This year the competition will be held at the Silverstone Circuit in England where the world’s first world cup formula 1 racing competition was held.
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he competition is divided into two main events, a static and a dynamic, which are also divided into several competitions, focusing on different aspects of building a race car. The Static concludes the following competitions: car design, cost and sustainability and also a business presentation. It also involves a tilt test, break and noise test as well as a technical and safety scrutineering. The dynamic events are skid pad, sprint, acceleration, endurance, fuel economy. These competitions are judged by specialists in each area.
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Last Year’s Race Report
he year 2016 was eventful for the team members of KTH Formula Student. After working on the car for several months the team departed to Italy to participate in Formula Electric Italy 2016. The car - weighing 80 kg less than the year before - ended up in 3rd place among the electric vehicles after careful scrutinization. The team went on to compete in all the dynamic events, setting a good time in skid pad and very good time in autocross. Acceleration event was spoiled mainly due to traction control issues. Furthermore the team performed well in the static events, improving our score in both design and cost as compared to previous year. Overall the car performed better than expected and the team ended up on the 7th place in the overall competition.
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Timeplan for eV13 August-September
The year starts with a recruitment and start-up phase. Around one third of the 40 people team from the previous project participate.
September-December
During the first month the different subgroups focus on acquiring the knowledge they need to solve their tasks.
This is when all design related work happens. CAD modeling of new parts, an iterative process of packaging and realization. Orders are also placed for everything needed during the year.
December-April
At this time of the year the manufacturing of the car is initiated. Around 90% of the parts of the car are made by the team members. Everything from CNC-milling, programming of electronical control systems, to welding is conducted inhouse by our members.
April-July
The manufacturing is finished, the vehicle undergoes extensive tests and optimizations to make sure everything functions properly.
July
All the hard work is put to the test when we compete at FSUK the 20th to 23rd of July this summer.
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A Test Day T
he days on the track are probably the most fun and rewarding days of the year in the Formula Student team. The students join together and build the team in early october to then develop, simulate, manufacture and assemble the car. After countless of long nights and hard work it is time to get out with the car on the track, fully loaded battery, an empty runway and dry tarmac. It is easy to get distracted because it doesn’t get much better than this. But the team stays focused. The Vehicle Dynamics group plans the test days ahead in detail so that the team of all 15 members knows what to do every minute of the test day.
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fter picking up a trailer and the car from the garage at the heart of KTH-campus the team heads out to an abandoned airfield north of Stockholm. The battery is checked one last time and the tires are pressurized. To learn more about the car’s behavior on a race track cones are placed out. Some typical test setups is a slalom track and a circle test to see what maximal lateral force the car can generate or see if the car is over- or understeered. As the car takes of every move is monitored and saved in the onboard computer for later analysis. The driver takes some laps on the open track to heat the tires to the optimal temperature, yes that is checked with a laser thermometer. When the tires has reached that perfect temperature. Everything from where to have the wheels, what kind of suspension should be used and so on is based upon those tire characteristics and therefore optimized.
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he car burst around the track the whole morning until the battery is unloaded and it is time to collect data and eat lunch. While the battery is charging some settings get adjusted on the car to improve the lap times for the afternoon session. The driver also gives tons of feedback that is taken into consideration to make the driver and car work good together. The faster lap times are then collected in the afternoon session before the cones are redistributed to make it possible to test one last thing before the sun sets.
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Driverless T
he class Formula Student has always been about the engineering competition behind building a fully functional race car. It is not all about who is the fastest around the track, it is about the process of developing, making design choices, getting to know manufacturing methods and work in a bigger project.
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rom the beginning Formula Student only consisted of one class, the Combustion class, but as the industry moved towards more environmentally friendly propulsion systems, a Hybrid and an all Electric class was introduced. KTH Formula Student early joined the electric revolution and have the last five years been part of the Electric class.
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ow for the first time ever is the new class Driverless introduced in the German competition. The cars in this class has to fulfill all the rules for the other classes but also the new Driverless rules. This means that the car should be able to be driven both, with and without a driver. Following the big trends in the vehicle industry shall now technical high schools from all over the world compete in how to develop a car and perform on a track without any driver!
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his first year it is only a few team from central europe that have had the time and money to start a Driverless team. However, KTH Formula Student are not far behind and has as the first team in scandinavia recently conducted a research study about what is needed from the team and from our sponsors to make it happen. We have also decided to take on the challenge and will during the spring recruit the first students to the subgroup “Driverless”. This subgroup will focus on building the algorithms, develop an image analysis system, design trajectory planning controllers and choose what actuators that needs to be integrated in the car. The goal is to join the “Driverless” competition in Germany in the summer of 2018.
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nother big obstacle to overcome is to find engaged and good partner companies within the field of Autonomous driving and ADAS (Advanced Driver Assist Systems) that are able to support with technical expertise and money for necessary components. The work on finding the best partners have already started but there is still a long way to go.
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egardless of how it goes the first year the experience gained will be a huge help for the upcoming years and the students working on the project will get one big step closer to become fully fetched engineers.
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Sustainability Why have you decided to aim for a more sustainable car?
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he full lifecycle process of every product that is produced is of high importance. Right now the human population is using the natural resources like we had more than one globe to live on. This will never work in the long run and we as young engineers can change that! That’s why we want to include the sustainability concept already in student projects like this, to make it come natural to us when we start working in the industry.
“young engineers can change that“ What are your sustainability goals and why?
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he most common way to propel a car nowadays is still by using combustion engines. In those systems only around 15% of the energy the fuel provides you with is used to get the car moving. The rest of the energy goes to heat, noise and used for other systems in the car. Add the pollution you get from combustion of fossil fuels and it doesn’t really sound like the system of the future.
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hat is partly why we decided to move over to an electric car where about 90% of the energy gets the car moving. With the electric motors you are even able to charge the batteries when braking which saves energy for later usage. Some may argue that the batteries then become the problem when getting discarded but as most studies have shown, the impact the life cycle has on the environment is still lower for an electrical car than for a combustion engined vehicle. But there are many other parameters that also is taken into account. Like the choice of a steel base frame that can be recycled instead of carbon fibre with fossil based epoxy.
What is the biggest challenge in building a sustainable car?
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he biggest challenges are to fulfill all requirements from the rules and optimize the car to perform as good as possible on the race track and as the same time be sustainable. Right now, the focus is on the regenerative braking part. Making it possible to charge the batteries while braking makes it possible to increase the total efficiency and extend the range of the car. It contributes to the overall concept of being sustainable.
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AN NP PRODUCTION
Shout out to kirstypargeter and other who contributed with pictures and articles