Competition 2014

The Rensselaer Formula Hybrid team Takes 6^th Place in Formula Hybrid Competition

By Jordan Yamada

               

This year at the 2014 Formula Hybrid Competition RPI’s team placed 6^th overall among other colleges. The competition requires teams to design and build an open wheel racecar with a hybrid internal combustion and electric drivetrain, while following strict safety criteria. The team worked year round to get to competition, and despite an entirely new leadership comprised of mostly sophomores, a relatively young and small team, and a complete redesign of the car, managed to build and design the DCMS (The name of this year’s car). The team is entirely student run, from getting sponsors to support the project to the engineering behind the car.

What makes this team special from other teams is the interdisciplinary relationship between the mechanical and electrical parts of the car, the size and dynamic of the team, and the challenge of the project. In the team photos we took at competition we have eight students from the MANE department, and five from the ECSE departments, and one from the Lally school of management although there many more who could not make it. A quote from one of the team members goes,

“I also wanted to be on a team project where I could learn more about interdisciplinary design, because if you want to do anything really amazing you can do it alone, but it’s going to be so much better with a friend” (Jordan Yamada Electrical Engineering 2016).

 In addition, the dynamic of the team is different from most others as one of the new members points out,

“Coming in as a freshman, I didn’t really know what to expect. I found that the Formula Hybrid team is small enough that I can contribute and know everyone, while also applying my coursework to actual situations.” (Chris Lamplough Mechanical Engineering 2017).

As another team member points out,

               

“I had tried formula SAE [another car team] previously, and I found that that crowd wasn’t quite right for me. Additionally, SAE’s system is already so well optimized that I knew I would probably not get that much flexibility in the one thing I love the most: engine building and tuning. Formula hybrid has given me an opportunity like nothing else has given me and for that I am truly grateful” (Eric Briggs, Aero/Mech  2016).

Lastly, the team the challenge of Formula Hybrid is enormous. The competition travels into territory that most engineering teams and cars have never gone before. Out of the many teams that compete, only a few cars actually ran during dynamic events. Placing in the competition shows tremendous progress for the team, and with hard work will do even better in the years to come.

Michel Royce and the team

Michel Royce giving advice

The co-presidents

Ricky and Kyle before design review

The team on the podium

Moving the Car

The Team and the DCMS

  

Sleepless night one

Sleepless night two

A New Semester

    The spring semester has officially commenced here at RPI. We've been as busy as ever here at Rensselaer Formula Hybrid as we transition from the designing portion of our project, to the building part. I want to first share with you some photos that were taken just before winter break during one of our testing sessions. This particular day was great fun and ended up being a wonderful team building activity as well.

    You'll begin by seeing us inching through hallways and down stair cases, holding the car up ourselves. This is the only way we can get the car in and out of our shop. It's crazy, but we always seem to orchestrate it just right.

    Next, you'll see the car as we prep it for a run.

    Soon after the test day, we all went home for the holiday break. One of the projects that was still in the works, even though classes were not in session, was the chassis. Over the break we received a box filled with laser cut tubes from Cartesian Tube Profiling, which would need to be welded together into a finished chassis.

    Over the past few weeks, our mechanical team leaders have been hard at work jigging, tacking, and welding the chassis together. It is still not entirely complete, but in the photos below, you will be able to see a fairly complete cockpit area.

    Thanks for checking in Hybrid fans. Visit us again for an update in the near future.

Fall Mid Semester Update

Welding Tutorial with Dave Digiulio

    Whats up Formula Hybrid fans and supporters? The team has been hard at work and I can't wait to do a little show and tell for you. Besides design, much of our efforts over these past few months have been spent on new member education and integration. In fact, we've held more programs for new members this year, than we have ever held in RPI Formula Hybrid history. Our young leadership team, consisting of mostly second year students has really stepped up to the plate, providing tutorials relating to nearly all major aspects of our project; including CAD design, machining, welding, and subsystem education.

    One new teaching tool that we are particularly proud of is our, "What is Racecar?" series. "What is Racecar?" is a series of weekly seminars, held before our general meetings. Each installment is given by a different sub-team leader with the intention of educating both new and existing team-members about their area of the project. By the end of the semester we plan to have provided seminars on drive-train, high voltage electrical, suspension, driver controls, data management, and the Formula Hybrid Competition.

What Is Racecar? Seminar - Jordan

    We plan to use last year's car throughout the end of next semester as a practice tool for our drivers as the new car comes together. In order to safely drive our car on school property, five of our leaders participated in a fire safety course. We gathered some helpful fire safety tips and at the end of the course, we were able to shoot a class A fire extinguisher at a pretty sweet propane fire simulator.

Fire Safety Training - Szymon

Fire Safety Training - Larry

    The necessity to move last year's car became apparent as designs were finalized, funding began trickling in, and we started ordering parts for this year's car. So, on a chilly Monday night, our prized race car was lifted from its resting place in the Johnson Engineering Center and rolled across campus to its current location in our shop in the Ricketts building. Maneuvering the car around the buildings' tight corridors and up and down several sets of stairs was a great team building activity and at the end we were able to snag our first official photo of the new team.

Navigating a Staircase in the Ricketts Building

2013-2014 Formula Hybrid Team

   Hope you've enjoyed this post, stay tuned for a detailed design post coming soon. For more information on the team or about how you can contribute, contact me, Taylor, at scicct@rpi.edu. Have a great week!

   

NRB Hybrid Go Kart

Electrical Routing in Solidworks

 After about a good week's worth of work and staying up till 2-3 o'clock in the morning, we had a very successful NRB (Navigation Rensselaer and Beyond). NRB is all the events welcome the freshman to Rensselaer and helping them get settled in their new environment. For our contribution we take a few freshman and put together a Go Kart, which we later take apart and have them assemble. This should help keep growing the team after our seniors graduated. Starting out this project ran into a lot of roadblocks. We planned all summer to make a brand new cart with electrical wiring and everything buts Sam, Kyle, and I decided that we didn't have time to weld the chassis to implement this overall design.

Original Go Kart Design

Deciding to just modify the old go kart chassis we used in previous NRB's we went to work. After a few nights of hard work, we got the cart to a state where the we could take it apart so the freshman could rebuild it for the first day of the NRB.

Checking the Etek Position

David after Mounting the Steering Rack

Finished Kart!

Mounting the Battery Box

Kart in pieces

After the incoming freshman put the go kart back together there were a few discrepancies that had to be rectified as pointed out by our advisor Casey Goodwin.  We then took the kart to JEC to make the necessary additions, and made sure that it would be able to handle the abuse of the following day. Despite a small miscommunication about getting the track reserved and some minor chain tensioning, the kart ran well. All the Freshmen had the opportunity to take it out for a drive, and we saw a lot of interest  in hybrids and our team. Overall the NRB and the new go kart was a great success and is a prelude of the successes in the season to come.

Post Rollout, Pre Competition

After a brief scare that I lost my memory card with all these pictures, I'm happy to say Rollout was a lot of fun and really helped give us exposure to our colleagues and supporters. We were able to get our car in a ready-to-show state and during a beautiful afternoon, exhibited The Heron to all who walked by or wanted snacks.

Our awesome cockpit featuring bolsters grown by Ecovative Design.

Our race car wouldn't be possible without you!

Even though we were ready to show off our race car, there was still a bit more work to do to make it race ready. A year long effort to make a custom differential finally concluded after we picked up the two parts from Raloid Tool Inc.

The differential, made to hold gears from a Torsen University Special

The outer housing that seals the unit

First time assembly was tricky

But well worth it to see the differential finally assembled, here with the sprocket carriers

Drive train components

The Formula Hybrid International Competition is this week from April 29th to May 2nd at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Just in case you didn't know, admission is free. See you all there!