FDTech Part of the 15th Formula Student Austraia Competition

From 20.07 to 26.07.2024 (Sat. - Fr.) the 15th Formula Student Austria competition took place at the Red Bull Ring. 58 racing teams participated totaling around 1800 students from many different countries. The competition was held for both combustion as well as electric vehicles.
In order to drive dynamic disciplines (i.e. actual races), the race cars have to pass several safety inspections for the accumulator, electronics, mechanics, and driver safety. There are also several tests the race cars have to pass, e.g. rain test, tilt test, and brake test. The TUC Racing e.V. participated with the fifth electric race car built from the ground up by students from the TU Chemnitz.
On Saturday the accumulator inspection did take place for the first time. Some minor tweaks needed to be done in order to pass the inspection.
The mechanical inspection was passed on Tuesday after some tweaks to the scatter shield. The driver safety inspection was also passed later that day.
After the accumulator, mechanics, electronics, and driver safety inspections were passed, the car was ready to undergo several more tests to ensure safety on the race track.
The tilt test was passed on Wednesday. The tilt test ensures the vehicle does not flip over during racing. The vehicle is loaded onto a plate, which is tilted by 60 degrees with the driver in it. If the vehicle does not flip over, it passes the tilt test.
The rain test was conducted after the tilt test later that day. During the rain test the vehicle is sprayed with water from every possible direction for two minutes while the traction system is active. The car passes the rain test, if the traction system stays on for two more minutes without switching into an invalid state (e.g. because of a short circuit).
For the brake test the vehicle has to accelerate to a minimum velocity and than brake so that the wheels are blocking. It was passed on Thursday and with that the race car was ready to drive the endurance race.
During the event we got a lot of useful information from the judges as well as from other teams and own experiences. We are currently working hard to incorporate improvements and testing them for the next upcoming event, which will be Formula Student Germany (FSG) at the Hockenheimring. FSG will also feature dynamic disciplines for autonomous driving. We are therefore excited to compete at an event for the first time with our autonomous driving system and are hoping to get some valuable feedback and experiences from FSG.