University of Twente Student Theses

Login

Optimal design and strategy for the SolUTra

Mocking, Ceriel (2006) Optimal design and strategy for the SolUTra.

[img] PDF
2MB
Abstract:In the past 2 years, a multidisciplinary team of students of the University of Twente has been designing and building the SolUTra, a solar powered racing car. The SolUTra participated in the 2005 World Solar Challenge, a 3000 km race, solely for cars powered by solar energy, through the outback of Australia. Such a project not only provides the obvious mechanical and electric challenges to a Solar Team, it also involves finding a way to efficiently use all available energy, while trying to be the first at the finish line. This report treats the design of a strategy development program (PALLAS), which is to be used to determine an optimal racing strategy for the SolUTra solar car during the race. The report also provides an overview of the proceedings of the race in Australia and the use of PALLAS during the race. PALLAS proved to be of great value, as it discovered erroneous car tunings in time, was able to develop optimal racing strategies and to determine the consequences of strategic decisions. However, PALLAS suffers from model inaccuracies due to lack of testing and inaccurate measurement equipment, which decreases the reliability of the developed strategies. The inaccuracy of the measurement equipment also decreases the ability to monitor and check the strategy that is maintained. For the next solar race, it is recommended to emphasize on car parameter identification as well as obtaining good measurement equipment.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Faculty:EEMCS: Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science
Subject:53 electrotechnology
Programme:Electrical Engineering MSc (60353)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/56520
Export this item as:BibTeX
EndNote
HTML Citation
Reference Manager

 

Repository Staff Only: item control page