This Season
USM are entering our 25th year of competing as a Formula Student team. Over the past 25 years, we have had many difficulties as a team, however since the switch to an electric powertrain, the team has been making strides year by year, continuously making improvements to the EV design. All the hard work and effort put in by team members over the past 5 years culminated with our best finish at FSUK (Formula Student UK), with the team finishing 4th overall.
USM24 is looking to build on the success of the earlier car. While we were incredibly happy with the results at the competition last year with USM23, we knew there was still room for improvement. This article will go into the process the team undertook to find the areas for the car to improve upon, and the positive effect that RS has had on the team.
Testing
Upon the completion of our competition season, the team began a post-season testing programme. This was a chance to push USM23 to its limits and to gain valuable data that would influence the new car's design. Our Vehicle Dynamics team set up a testing plan that allowed us to effectively produce the data we would need to inform us of USM24’s design
Creating events which were representative of that which the car faced at Silverstone and testing crucial systems such as our Launch and Traction Control, ensured that USM24's design would have strong foundations.
Post-season testing was also used as an opportunity for senior team members to convey vital information about car testing procedures. Finally, they were able to race USM23 for its final time.
PROJECT GOALS
3rd place at FSUK
After our successful testing period, the team sat down and discussed what we wanted to aim for this season. After many discussions, the team decided to set the goal of breaking into the top 3 positions at FSUK. This felt like the natural thing to aim for since we were so close to breaking into the podium places last year. The team have designed many strong mechanical and powertrain improvements. Coupled with advances in our project planning, which has allowed greater testing time, we are confident this goal is attainable.
Establish the first driverless team and develop vehicle software for full system testing.
Another goal of the team was to set up our first-ever driverless team to compete in the FS-AI competition. This is something the team has wanted to do for a few years now. Competitions such as Formula Student Germany, which was attended by USM last year, mandate a driverless element in their scoring. As such we are put at a disadvantage by not having the ability to do this, and if we want to continue to improve our results, we cannot leave any points on the table.
The other reason that we wanted to begin the driverless team is that AI is becoming a major thing in the industry, and one of our goals is to provide our members with skills that are relevant for their professional development. By creating a driverless team, we can give current members (who are primarily mechanically and electrically trained) the opportunity to explore the software development and autonomous machines field. Furthermore, we can attract students from a wider pool of disciplines, such as Computing Science.
Car Build
Following the design season, car manufacture began for USM24.
The accumulator in this year's car is an evolution of our previous iterations. With a focus on saving weight and improving performance. As in previous years, there has been immense pride taken in the continuation and production of our very own printed circuits for the car. With the introduction of a CAN node system, we have been able to reduce harness complexity and have been able to remove our analogue lines to save weight. The team have been able to use a thinner material and have changed to an aluminium lid for our high-voltage battery. The overall cooling system within the Accumulator has been improved by changing to an alternate busbar layout, which has led to an increase in performance when doing endurance runs.
We have also made considerable progress on the mechanical side of the car. USM24 features a fully redesigned aerodynamic package which has a 30% performance gain over the previous design. On the suspension side, the car features a redesigned steering system, with a focus on optimising driver feedback and a fully adjustable outboard kinematics, We have been able to maintain our chassis stiffness from USM23 while reducing the weight by 10%. The car also features some driver-friendly features such as an adjustable pedal box and a fully carbon fibre steering wheel with customisable controls.
RS over the last 9 seasons has provided the team with incredible support and has made the process of building USM24 a far more efficient and enjoyable experience for everyone involved. From providing the components such as the bearings used in our drivetrain system, to providing the team with the components to continue developing our advanced low voltage loom, and the vital safety components to keep our drivers safe, we cannot thank RS enough.
Hear from our Head of Electronics Elias about the support RS has provided us this year "RS has provided us with incredible support this year. They have allowed us to secure the best of the best in harness components such as heat shrink and moulded boots to complement our newly adopted connector series. We are really looking forward to further maximising its reliability this season"
Finally, the team are making the final preparations for USM24. We successfully launched USM 24 earlier in the month and have managed to put the car through a preseason testing programme in preparation for FSUK. We would like to thank RS Components again for their continued support of our project over the past nine seasons and we are delighted to race with the RS logo on USM24.
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