Shining a light on solar racing: the power of a data data driven car

submited by
Style Pass
2023-03-24 10:30:16

The Innoptus Solar Team is a group of 20 engineering students who design and build a solar car every two years to compete in international solar races. Multiple teams have to travel about 4000 km's throughout deserts, mountain ranges, coasts etc. in Morocco, South-Africa and Australia. Right now, the team is preparing to participate in the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge 2023, with their newest solar car.

The car does a lot of data logging. In particular, the data we collect is crucial to our battery management strategy, which is key to our success in these races. We need to ensure that our battery lasts the entire race and is not depleted too early on, while also driving the race in the most efficient way possible.

The solar car is designed, optimized and produced almost entirely by the student team. This includes the motor, battery and solar panel. All of those systems need to be monitored thoroughly during the race. This monitoring happens with a self-written monitoring program, that stores and visualizes data from the solar car constantly throughout the race. During each day of the race, a big database is built with the metrics of the car during that race day. Visualizing this database during and after a race day helps the team a lot with interpreting all of these signals. For example, we record the speed and motor temperature during a race day:

The strategic aspect of a solar race, is mainly battery management. First, how can we drive a race, so that the battery rests the entire race, and isn't empty after day 1? Second, how can we do this in the most efficient way, aka how can we drive the race in the least amount of time and arrive at the finish line with not too much energy left?

Leave a Comment