The increased focus on self-driving cars at last week’s event (17-21 July) was enabled by a grant from the Centre for Connected Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV), which funded two more shared driverless cars, and re-engineering of two existing ‘dedicated vehicles’. The four IMechE cars were controlled by autonomous navigation and driving systems developed by the students.
The 20 FS AI teams this year needed to “think a different way” to the groups building human-driven internal combustion (IC) cars and electric vehicles (EVs), said engineering design judge Willem Toet at the event on Friday. “You have to think about computer programming and analysing pictorial data.”
The AI element is a good way for universities who do not have a big budget to get involved, Toet said, because they do not have to build their own cars.
“It actually opens things up to students with good brains, who don't have the budgets or the facilities to build a complete car – that I love,” he said to Professional Engineering. “The programming experience that the students have will land them great jobs.”
Techniques honed at the competition are useful for features including adaptive braking, cruise control and lane assist, he said, as well as in fully autonomous cars in future.
‘Higher playing field’
Oxford Brookes Racing is one of FS AI’s most successful teams, and came second in the category this year. “Each year we compare ourselves to the competitors, people who are ahead of us, and see what changes we can make to cross that level,” said team leader Mihir Gohad on Friday.
This year, that involved development of a new sensor plate, with a GPS accurate to 2cm. “We also have a thing that we call a magic box, which gives us wireless telemetry access while the car is running. We can monitor critical systems, basically like a mission control. Because in dynamic events we get 15 minutes, so we need to know do we need to abort the current run, reset, or do we let the car go?”
The high level of communication and data collection allows the team to maximise their use of the available time. “If you do a fast run and there's some behaviour that is undesirable, you can change your system to correct or change the behaviour. Sometimes you might have multiple strategies, based on the event, so you can switch strategies to get a better result.”
Taking part in the AI element “is like a higher playing field,” he added. “It sets you up for a good career path, because autonomous vehicles will happen someday. If you get in early, you will be in a good position down the road.”
Optimised performance
Innovation at this year’s event was not limited to autonomous teams. Grand Champions Edith Cowan Racing, who travelled all the way from Perth in Western Australia, used a new rear suspension system known as the integrated powertrain suspension (IPS). The axle of a micro sprint car is mounted to a triangular mechanism, which also holds the engine. With two tie rods at the sides and two suspension pick-ups, the entire rear suspension can unbolt from five bolts.
Team leader Ashley Ure explained how the unique design allows for easy disassembly and reassembly, and how it improves performance on tight Australian tracks.
“We are really looking to optimise our performance on track,” she said. “They run really tight tracks, even in comparison to the UK track. It's actually quite a lot faster over here. So what we want to do is make sure that our vehicle can rotate… our drivers find that it's actually really predictable. So they thoroughly enjoy driving it.”
The approach paid off, with the team winning the sprint and endurance track events, as well as the engineering design trophy.
After a trial last year, all IC teams were provided with 95 Ron E10 and E85 sustainable fuels, which offer an 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared to fossil fuel equivalents.
The new options provided a “bit more power” compared to petrol, said Staffordshire University team leader Angel Dong. The fuels can run on the same engines, saving extra engineering work.
The team, which came fourth overall, was able to instead focus on aerodynamics, developing a full aero package for the first time. “It was a lot of innovating, a lot of learning composites, learning how to work around moulds, using new techniques of making the bodywork and the aerodynamics.”
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Content published by Professional Engineering does not necessarily represent the views of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.