EcoCAR

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Canada is in the Green Car Race too

July 27, 2011 in Green Auto News by ggguestuser | No comments

A Toronto company recently made huge strides in the pursuit to make the best battery for electric vehicles. After 15 years of plugging away at lith-ion technology, Electrovaya, Inc, has put Canada on the battery map with the US, Japan and South Korea. The company was recently awarded two contracts to supply Chrysler with Lithium Ion SuperPolymer battery systems for 25 Plug-In Hybrid minivans and 140 Plug-In Hybrid pickup trucks.

What sets Electrovaya apart from other companies making Lithium Ion batteries? A lack of N-methyl-pyrrolidone, also known as NMP, in their products. The US Environmental Protection Agency puts this chemical in the same toxic category as mercury and asbestos. CEO of Electrovaya, Sankar DasGupta, says that the company wanted nothing to do with NMP when they found out how detrimental it is to human health. Green vehicles should be built with the future always in mind.

Electrovaya isn’t the only Canadian institution making green auto innovations – three of the teams participating in EcoCAR 2 also hail from north of the border: The University of Victoria, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, and University of Waterloo. Way to go, Canada!

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How dSPACE Tools Kept OSU EcoCAR on Track

July 26, 2011 in Sponsor Post, Team Posts by ggguestuser | No comments

The Ohio State University (OSU) EcoCAR team developed an Electric Range Extending Vehicle (EREV) that employs a dedicated E85 engine. Honda donated two identical 1.8L 4-cylinder compressed natural gas (CNG) engines to the team, which the team converted to run on E85 ethanol.  E85 has a higher octane rating than gasoline and is one of the approved fuels of the EcoCAR competition. The high octane rating of E85 allows it to run in the compressed natural gas engine, which is built for higher compression ratios that allow the engine to achieve higher efficiencies than a regular gasoline engine. One engine was set up in a dynamometer test cell with the other one in the vehicle. The two identical engines allowed the team to perform development in the dynamometer test cell and in the vehicle simultaneously in order to optimize the efficiency and emissions of the vehicle. Using the OSU-designed control system, the engine reaches peak diesel like efficiencies of 40% and a peak power of 100 kW.

As part of the competition, emissions testing took place at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) National Vehicle and Fuel Emissions Laboratory (NVFEL) from March 7-14, 2011. However, a mechanical failure of the engine in the dynamometer test cell left the team without a much-needed test platform for engine tuning before emissions testing took place.  The test data was needed to calibrate engine software for testing at the EPA.

Thanks to sponsor support from dSPACE and the chosen design architecture for the OSU vehicle, the team was able to quickly set up and perform the required engine testing in the vehicle. The OSU vehicle can couple its engine to the 82-kw Remy front electric machine without connecting the front powertrain to the wheels. The dSPACE ControlDesk software provides the calibration interfaces needed to perform engine tuning tests safely in the vehicle.  The team developed an experiment for in-vehicle dynamometer testing in dSPACE’s ControlDesk that allowed the tests to be conducted in the vehicle.  ControlDesk even allowed the dynamometer tools from ETAS, Vector, and Woodward that are usually used in the dynamometer test cell to still be connected to the system, thus making the transition to the temporary in-vehicle testing seamless.

In-vehicle engine test setup designed using dSPACE tools

The OSU team was able to ship their vehicle to the EPA facility for emissions testing. The dSPACE ControlDesk dynamometer set-up allowed the team to get back on schedule and fully prepare for emissions testing at the EPA, despite the hardware setback with the dynamometer engine.  The dSPACE ControlDesk tool is one of many software tools that helped the team remain on schedule to perform well in the final competition events in June 2011. OSU did so well in Finals that the team earned a 2nd Place Overall Finish!

The Ohio State EcoCAR team would like to say thank you to dSPACE Inc. for all their help throughout the three year EcoCAR competition. The team also focused their “Sponsor Series” on dSPACE Inc., where they interviewed Santhosh Jogi, Director of Engineering at dSPACE about his experience with EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge. You can watch the interview below!

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Student Perspective: A Rewarding Experience leads to New and Exciting Opportunities

July 21, 2011 in Team Posts by ggguestuser | No comments

By Embry Riddle’s Stephen Renick

My name is Stephen Renick and I am a senior in the Mechanical Engineering program at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. I started working on the EcoEagles Mechanical Team as part of my preliminary design class. At first I was overwhelmed with the scope of the project and the long list of tasks that needed to be accomplished by competition time in June.

Stephen Renick at the White House during Year Three Finals

In my first semester on the EcoCAR team I played an important role in helping the team troubleshoot diesel engine problems and assisted in the first replacement of the two-mode transmission.  I was able to design and build many brackets for the intercooler and circuit boards. In addition, I helped in the preliminary design of aerodynamic modifications.

In my second semester on the team I took the position of mechanical lead of the EcoEagles.  I continued to assist with diesel testing and dynamic testing for controls improvement; however, I also worked on completing the safety checklist to pass technical inspection at this year’s spring workshop. Because of my significant contribution to the team’s progress, I was able to attend the spring workshop in Ann Arbor, Michigan. At this workshop I attended technical presentations, emissions testing at the EPA and a sponsor banquet.  In fact, this incredible workshop eventually lead to General Motors offering me a job. Our team was proud to finish Year Three with multiple awards, and we are excited to be a part of EcoCAR 2.

The EcoCAR 2 Vehicle: a Chevy Malibu

The EcoCAR competition has allowed me to understand many things about the automotive industry, including the amount of design work, the complexity of the testing, and the difficulty of refining that goes into producing a production vehicle.  I have made many strong bonds with fellow teammates that are sure to continue through our professional lives.  The EcoCAR competition has given me direction and provided me with a jumpstart to my professional career in the automotive industry.  It is fair to say that EcoCAR has profoundly affected my future in this industry.

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Police Departments Add Greener Crime-Fighting Vehicles

July 18, 2011 in Green Auto News by ggguestuser | No comments

All over the country, big cities and small towns are trying to find new ways to be environmentally friendly. One of the newest green trends involves replacing regular police cruisers or motorcycles with electric ones.

Photo: Nick Allen, Flickr

The Big Apple is just one of the major cities greening their crime-fighting vehicle force. The New York Police Department has decided to incorporate 70 more Chevrolet Volt patrol cars into its fleet. The city estimates that each Volt added will save approximately 4, 000 gallons of gasoline and around $15, 000 during the lifespan of each individual car. These Chevy Volts have been rated by the EPA as the most fuel efficient compact cars found and sold in the United States. New York has also incorporated 70 new charging stations in locations all over the city to improve the convenience of these newly added vehicles. City municipal developers hope that the cars have two lasting effects: spread knowledge to the general public about the advantages and fuel economy of electric vehicles as well as offering a low emission environmentally friendly alternative in a busy, urban environment. Currently, the NYPD has the largest fuel-efficient vehicle fleet in the nation. However, it is not only big cities taking the lead on improving the environment but also smaller towns.

Zero DS Electric Bike - Photo: Nicolas Boullosa, Flickr

Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin, located in the southeastern part of the state, has a population of 7,600 and is about an hour away from the cities of Milwaukee and Green Bay. However, even this small town is doing its part to save the environment. Using money obtained through a federal grant, the Sheboygan Falls Police Department hopes to add an electric motorcycle to its law enforcement task force within the next few weeks. According to Chief of Police Steve Riffel, the Zero DS street bike-dirt bike hybrid will be funded by a $10,000 grant from the Wisconsin state Office of Justice Assistance. Riffel says the bikes can go through parks and trails and also can patrol along the streets. Riffel also said that the bike will be purchased as soon as the city council approves it and should arrive within the next few weeks. Reaching a top speed of 68 mph and traveling up to 58 miles on a single charge, the bike, powered by a lithium battery, uses only approximately 48 cents of electricity per charge. Compare this to the price of gas today and it is clear which option is more energy and economically efficient. Sheboygan Falls was one of three Wisconsin towns to receive federal funding but so far is the only one to comment on the use of such funding.

While these are only two examples of how state and city officials are helping to improve the environment, many other state and city officials including those in Virginia and Massachusetts, have promised clean-air vehicles to join their crime-fighting fleets in the near future. We hope that someday soon, the advanced technologies used in the EcoCAR Competition will be included in police vehicles as well!

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dSPACE Helping Advance Technology Across the Board

July 15, 2011 in Sponsor Post, Video Blogs by ggguestuser | No comments

Check out this cool new video from EcoCAR Platinum sponsor dSPACE! The clip shows how General Motors, Honda Aircraft, and of course, EcoCAR students use dSPACE’s hardware-in-the-loop systems to design and test advanced technologies.

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Why Join EcoCAR? Compelling Reasons from an MS&T Student

July 14, 2011 in Team Posts by ggguestuser | No comments

By: Nathan Price, Three year EcoCAR Team Member, Undergraduate in Electrical Engineering, Missouri University of Science and Technology

MS&T's Nathan Price

I first joined the Missouri S&T EcoCAR team during my freshman year, which was Year One for the competition. I had been looking to become involved with a student design group, so EcoCAR quickly became a fun challenge for me in my spare time. What interested me the most about the competition was how much hands-on it access we had to the automotive industry’s real world, leading edge technology.  I think EcoCAR is a great way for engineering students to get inspired and to get a little taste of the industry.  Looking back, I’ve had some great experiences in EcoCAR: I’ve been able to travel, I’ve stayed up nights trying to beat deadlines, and I’ve made a lot of a good friends. Our team finishing in 5th place overall for the competition was a great way to cap off this fantastic experience.

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EcoCAR a Defining Experience for MS&T Electrical Engineer

July 13, 2011 in Team Posts by ggguestuser | No comments

By Missouri S&T undergrad team member Kyle Schaefer

My EcoCAR experience started my freshman year when I noticed a poster inviting students to join the EcoCAR team on campus. As luck would have it, I had recently decided to become an electrical engineer, and I was looking for a way to incorporate cars, a longtime hobby of mine, with my new career choice. I attended the first meeting and have been a member of the MS&T EcoCAR team ever since.

Kyle Schaefer

I’ve gained a great deal of practical electrical knowledge while working on EcoCAR. One of the most important things I’ve learned is how to transfer information from a wiring diagram into actual wires and connections. I learned that designing a wiring diagram is relatively simple, but implementing one into a car with limited space is challenging.

EcoCAR has also given me training in fail-safe system design. The overall design of our car’s controls was safety focused. At each control layer we had to implement fail-safes in order to prevent a loss of control in the vehicle. More than any one specific learning experience, EcoCAR has helped me understand just how enormous an undertaking it is to create a production vehicle. The program has been one of the defining experiences of my college education, and I will certainly apply the lessons I’ve learned to my career beyond college.

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UWAFT Participates in 2011 Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Conference

July 8, 2011 in EcoCAR News, Team Posts by ggguestuser | No comments

Just before June’s EcoCAR Finals, the University of Waterloo Alternative Fuels Team (UWAFT) proudly represented the EcoCAR Challenge as an exhibitor at the 2011 Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Conference (HFC2011) in Vancouver, B.C.  During the conference, UWAFT teamed up with EcoCAR Diamond Sponsor, Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) to educate conference attendees about the EcoCAR Challenge and to showcase the design and technical achievements of the team’s student-built hydrogen fuel cell plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (FC-PHEV).

UWAFT Outreach Coordinator, Eric Mallia, at the 2011 hydrogen fuel cell conference

This is the second consecutive advanced vehicle technology competition (AVTC) of which UWAFT has re-engineered a General Motors donated vehicle into one that runs on hydrogen fuel cell technology.  In the past seven years of working on hydrogen fuel cell technology, UWAFT has partnered with several other companies in exhibiting at the conference including Air Liquide, who supplies UWAFT with hydrogen, and Dana Thermal Group, who helped UWAFT design a customized cooling system for its EcoCAR.

UWAFT is one of only two student teams in the EcoCAR Challenge that chose hydrogen as its alternative fuel for its competition vehicle.  Their vehicle design and performance – as well as outreach events like HFC2011 – earned the team a 3rd Place overall finish at Year Three Finals in June.

General Motors also displayed its 2008 Chevrolet Equinox Vehicle at the exhibit

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On-the-Job Training: An Embry Riddle Student Looks Forward to EcoCAR 2

July 6, 2011 in Team Posts by ggguestuser | No comments

By Embry Riddle’s Cassie Cameron

After being brought on to the Embry Riddle EcoCAR Team very late in the game, I had (and still do have) a lot of catching up to do.  I was brought on to assist the team’s current outreach coordinator and learn the ropes in preparation to take over the outreach coordinator position for EcoCAR 2 next year. This competition was foreign to me, but thankfully I was thrown right in and started to learn about the overall objectives and importance of it right away.

The Embry Riddle Team at Year Three Finals in June

As a communications major I don’t have a lot of engineering background, so I’m amazed at the work our team members have done.  It’s really great to come into the lab and see our engineers working on various aspects of our vehicle. Seeing people so motivated and driven for a worthy cause is very refreshing.

Initially, I worked on the influencer campaign.  I sent out several letters to local, state and national government officials.  I was excited when my letters produced results. For example, the circulation of my letters gave us the opportunity to have U.S. Congressman John Mica and Daytona Beach Mayor Glenn Ritchey visit our Green Garage and meet team members.

I’ve also helped with the progress reports, which will be good practice for next year.  If there’s one thing I’ve learned from this experience it is that communication is vital to a team’s success.  There are so many team members working on various projects that if the lines of communication aren’t open and consistent, things get a little crazy.  Luckily our team has a handle on communicating between members.  I’m proud of the work our team did in EcoCAR 1, and I’m very excited to see what EcoCAR 2 has in store!

 

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Looking Back at Milford: A Diary by 2nd Place Finisher OSU

June 30, 2011 in Team Posts by ggguestuser | No comments

The Ohio State University EcoCAR team spent the second week of June hard at work at General Motors’ proving grounds in Milford, Michigan to help their car finish Year 3 testing strong. The team worked all hours of the day, and the next week in Washington, DC they were rewarded with a second place finish out of the 16 teams in the competition. Here’s a play by play of how the week went down from the perspective of OSU EcoCAR faculty advisor Dr. Shawn Midlam-Mohler.

Day 1: Monday 6/6/11

Monday was the first day of the EcoCAR competition finals. The OSU team started on a high note by winning the Best Technical Paper award for their 20 page report covering all technical aspects of the vehicle.  It was also announced that, going into the competition, OSU had the highest point tally from pre-competition report submissions.  OSU had a few relatively minor issues to deal with from the safety tech inspection, and after some quick software modifications and some wrench work, the team was able to pass the static safety tech inspection.  The team is scheduled to begin dynamic events this morning, which will include On-Road Safety, Braking, Acceleration, and likely begin part of the three-event Emissions and Fuel Economy test.

Day 2: Tuesday 6/7/11

In day two, OSU successfully passed the On-Road Safety event (ORSE) with no major issues.  The only “problem” was that the vehicle’s charge port door made a bit of a racket during the turn maneuvers – a little duct tape and the vehicle was back in action. Immediately after ORSE, the team went through the acceleration and braking event and performed as we had expected, which should put us in the middle of the pack for that event.  (Virginia Tech had a smoking 0-60 time of 6.3 seconds…)  After the vehicle came back, the team immediately got the vehicle on a charger to get our PHEV pack up to 100% SOC so we could start the events our vehicle is truly designed to excel at – the Emissions and Energy Consumption (E&EC) event.

The E&EC event consists of three on-road drive cycles of 20, 40, and 100 miles with the 100 mile section requiring emissions measurements.  Each cycle needs to start full charged, which makes strategic charging a must.  On Tuesday, the team managed to charge up to 100%, run the 20 mile cycle, and then get charged up again for another run in the morning.  As I write this, the OSU EcoCAR is about 1/3 through the 100 mile test and looking good.

Day 3: Wednesday 6/8/11

On Day 3 the OSU EcoCAR was the first team to successfully complete the 100 mile on-road portion of the Emissions and Energy Event (E&EC) – although Penn State was a close second place.  The team started at 6:30 am (thanks to the General Motors and Argonne National Lab staff coming in early!) to avoid the anticipated near-record high temperatures predicted for today.  The vehicle ran as expected, traveling nearly 40 miles in all-electric mode before switching on the high-efficiency E85 engine for range extension.  The vehicle’s advanced emissions system was online and we expect to have excellent tailpipe emissions.

After completion of the event, the vehicle spent an hour in the air conditioned pit area before having its fuel tank weighed and being moved outside for recharge on metered stations.  In this event, all fuel energy and electrical energy put into the vehicle is carefully measured to allow an accurate assessment of the well-to-wheels energy consumption of the vehicle.  We anticipate the vehicle will complete charging by 6:00 pm this evening and we plan on rolling back into the air conditioned shop to soak until morning.  Tomorrow, in the cool of early morning, we plan on running the final portion of the E&EC event which is 40 miles of mixed city and highway driving.  This will complete the testing required for the high-point value events.

Day 4: Thursday 6/9/11

Day 4 of the EcoCAR Competition Finals was another early morning for the team  at GM’s Milford Proving grounds.  After arriving at 6 am, the team was scheduled to run the third and final leg of the 160 mile Emissions and Fuel Economy (E&EC) of the competition, which is the most critical event.  Ohio State’s vehicle completed 38 miles out of 40 without burning a single drop of fuel, after which it transitioned as planned to operate on the high-efficiency ethanol engine.  Over the 40 mile trip, the vehicle burned only a fraction of a gallon of fuel.  After returning to the pits, the vehicle had its fuel tank weighed and was moved to the charging area where it was plugged in to gain back its full electric range.  The OSU team was the first team to complete this event in its entirety.

With a full battery charge and plenty of fuel, the team successfully notched up another two events, the Dynamic Consumer Acceptability Event and AVL Drive Quality Event.  The first event measures exterior noise, interior noise, and vibration, and though the full results weren’t available, we know the team scored full points on the exterior noise portion of the event.  The second event evaluates the “smoothness” of the vehicle during acceleration and braking maneuvers.  Results weren’t available for this event either, but the team’s unique design and control system should put the team in a competitive position with other teams.

Day 5: Friday 6/10/11

In Day 5 of the EcoCAR competition, the team checked off the next to last event, which was an autocross course.  A GM driver took each team’s vehicle through the course three  times with the best time used for scoring.  OSU held the lead during the first round, but Waterloo and Mississippi State pulled off a few spectacular runs which knocked OSU down to the middle of the pack.  The team also had time to rerun the acceleration event, improving their 0-60 time from 13.99 to a still-unofficial 11.1 seconds.  This puts the team a little closer to middle of the pack, but still not within striking distance of Virginia Tech and Mississippi State which posted about 6-second 0-60 times.

Day 6: Saturday 6/11/11

This morning, OSU is on deck for the towing event.  In the afternoon, the team has both of their presentation events around the vehicle.  The first is the Vehicle Testing Complete presentation, which is given in front of a panel of expert judges from industry and government.  The purpose is to demonstrate the vehicle’s near-production status as demonstrated by testing.  OSU should have a strong case to make, as they have conducted a number of tests at OSU-CAR, the EPA facility in Ann Arbor, GM’s Desert Proving Grounds, and Transportation Research Center.  The second presentation is the Static Consumer Acceptability event, in which the students describe the customer features of their vehicle.

Following the six days of dynamic events explained above, Ohio State went on to Washington, DC where they competed in several static engineering presentations. Together they earned a total of 691 points (out of 1,000) and took home the Second Place Award, demonstrating a tremendous amount of hard work and commitment over three years! We salute the Ohio State EcoCAR team for their tremendous effort and look forward to seeing them in EcoCAR 2!

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