Home Community Community Documents Academic Curriculum and Student Projects Student Projects Document

Student Projects

cancel
Turn on suggestions
Auto-suggest helps you quickly narrow down your search results by suggesting possible matches as you type.
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

DTU Roadrunners: Autonomous and Efficient Driving

by Member on
‎06-12-2018 03:26 PM
- edited on ‎07-30-2018 10:28 AM by: RER

Contact Information:

Country: Denmark
Year Submitted: 2018
University: Technical University of Denmark
List of Team Members (with year of graduation): 20+ Members
Faculty Advisers: Jesper Schramm, Claus Sidrup Nielsen
Main Contact Email Address: js@mek.dtu.dk, s164577@student.dtu.dk

 

UPDATE: DTU Roadrunners Win Two Awards at Shell Eco-Marathon 2018

DTU students saw their race car claim top spot as the most fuel-efficient at the annual Shell Eco-Marathon. In fact, their bioethanol-powered car broke the track record for fuel-efficient driving with 374 km on one litre of petrol in their second run, thus winning the category.

 

Photo: DTU

 

Additionally, 'Dynamo'—as the car is called—also won the competition for best driverless car. 

 

“Luckily, we had built software for the driverless system from scratch, so we easily could adapt the car to any unexpected changes at the London track. Because we knew the program so well, we were the first ever to have completed a full track without the driver touching the steering wheel while driving” Henning Si Høj, DTU Roadrunners

 

Learn More: DTU Roadrunners win two prizes at Shell Eco-Marathon

Project Information:

Title: DTU Roadrunners: Autonomous and Efficient Driving

Description: 

DTU Roadrunners is a student-driven project at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). The aim of the DTU Roadrunner project is to demonstrate that modern cars have a long way to go in terms of fuel efficiency. The team of students tries to show this using current technology and optimization of different parameters while creating our highly fuel-efficient vehicle. Additionally, this year the team has added autonomous navigation capabilities to this car. These were implemented over the course of the past two years.This year's DTU Roadrunner teamThis year's DTU Roadrunner teamAs every year, the DTU team is slated to compete in the Shell Eco-marathon (SEM) with this year’s rendition of the DTU Roadrunner Dynamo, where we look to uphold our high finishing standards from past years.

 

Products: 

  • Software
    • Labview
  • Hardware
    • CRio
      • Chassis 4/8-slot
        • Module NI 9411
        • Module NI 9211
        • Module NI 9205
        • Module NI 9403
    •  SBRio
      • 2 slot C-series Extension
        • Module NI 9411
        • Module NI 9211

The Challenge:

As always, the main challenge for the DTU Roadrunners is to come up with a well-engineered fuel-efficient vehicle. The main challenge for this year’s team was to find a way to combine this fuel-efficient vehicle with the necessary autonomous components to allow for a driverless vehicle. This has been achieved successfully, as the car has qualified for the Autonomous Urban Concept Competition at SEM this summer.

 

The Solution:

Engine

The engine in DTU Dynamo was originally a 50ccm scooter engine. Over the years however, the engine has been substantially modified by the students, and today only the header of the original engine remains.

 

The engine in the DTU DynamoThe engine in the DTU DynamoIn other words, all other vital components have been redesigned by the students, including the gearbox, crankshaft casing, fly wheel, etc. Furthermore, the engine has been modified to run on the CO2-neutral fuel 2nd generation bio-ethanol E100 – a sustainable fuel type produced from agricultural waste products unsuitable for food. Even the programming of the car’s engine management system has been setup by the students themselves.

 

Engine Control Unit (ECU)

The above-mentioned engine is applied using a self-designed Engine Control Unit. This ECU was coded using LabView, in combination with a variety of NI-modules. The ECU executes all the calculations needed to run the vehicle. The ECU allows for a variety of things to happen such as controlling fuel injection and ignition of the system. The ECU allows us to monitor the status of the engine and the car, and the buttons and display in the steering wheel allow the driver to react accordingly.

 

Driving Strategy:

Part of our work to achieve the lowest possible fuel consumption was to optimize the driving strategy of the car. The students in DTU Roadrunners have put intensive work into determining what strategy would be best for the car. In the end, the team has settled on a coast and burn driving strategy. This means that the car does not use the engine throughout the entire lap. Rather, the engine uses its 1st gear to get the car moving, and then engages the 2nd gear to reach a top speed of 35km/h. After this, the engine is turned off and the car coasts. Upon reaching a speed of 20km/h the engine is engaged again to return to its top speed. This driving strategy is enabled by the use of a special one-way ball bearing on the powering axle. This allows us to isolate the drive line when the engine is shut off during the coast cycle. Furthermore, the one-way bearings have been optimized to minimize the friction coefficient of the vehicle to allow for more efficient fuel consumption, as there is lesser deceleration due to the braking of the one-way bearing.

 

Testing:

To finish off our process, we always subject our car to rigorous testing. This year, the testing includes both the autonomous and mechanical components of the car. During the mechanical testing, the emphasis lies on the engine of the car. This allows us to optimize our driving strategy and ECU code to improve our fuel efficiency. Additionally, this year the senor mounts and their readings must be tested to perfect the autonomous handling of the car.Initial Tests of the Autonomous Sensors on the DTU DynamoInitial Tests of the Autonomous Sensors on the DTU Dynamo

Autonomous features:

As mentioned, one of the main challenges for this year’s DTU Roadrunners team was to incorporate the necessary components to allow the car to drive autonomously. For example, the LIDAR sensor can be seen mounted on the top of the shell in the picture below.

Mounting and Checking of the Telemetry MountMounting and Checking of the Telemetry MountAdditionally, the DTU Dynamo has been fitted with advanced sensors, actuators and computers, enabling the car to drive the track and avoid obstacles autonomously. This allowed us to be the team to complete the first ever autonomous run in SEM history, and qualify for the first ever Autonomous Urban Concept Competition. This feat was accomplished by ongoing collaboration between multiple students representing several branches of modern engineering.

 

Our future goals in this category are to finish well at the SEM this coming summer, as well as refine and optimize the autonomous system in the upcoming years.

 

Link to Video

First Autonomous Drive in SEM History

(https://www.facebook.com/dturoadrunners/videos/2572928009598123/)

 

Download All
Contributors