The Chalmers Formula Student team took a historic overall victory in driverless cars class in the competition in Germany. The road there was marked by a year of hard work to engineer a car, a crash in Hungary, and a hectic night to get things working again.
"As long as you have the will to fight, nothing can stop you", says student Alexandra Lund, one of the members of the Chalmers team.
Formula Student is the world's largest engineering competition for students, and for more than 20 years Chalmers has participated with a team. The competition involves designing and building your own Formula car for a year, and then competing against teams from technical universities from all over the world with the car.
"It has been an incredibly educational year", says Alexandra Lund, who studies mobility engineering.
Together with her teammates, she has been back home in Gothenburg for about a week. The summer's competitions in Hungary and Germany ended with Chalmers' team taking home an event victory in Hungary and then thrashed the competition and took home the gold medal in the class of driverless cars on the classic German race track Hockenheimring.
"It is a little special to win in Germany", she says. "They are the leading competition and they set the regulations for how the competition is run."
The competition does not only consist of driving your self-designed car on a track. The teams also compete in aspects such as best business idea, best design and total cost of the project. In addition, they must pass a series of inspections, where, for example, the entire car's electrical system is tested.
"It is among other things to make sure that the car is safe to drive", says Anton Rosén, who studies computer science. "It is only when you have passed them that you can run the dynamic moments."
Controlled with a remote control
There, one competes, among other things, in an acceleration moment where the car has to cover a distance of 75 meters in the shortest possible time from a standstill, a so-called "skid pad" where the car has to get around an eight-shaped track, as well as different lengths of track driving. The driverless car is controlled with a remote control that has a start button and an emergency stop - otherwise the car must be able to get around completely on its own.
The Chalmers team's year with Formula Student began in the fall semester of 2022, when all who would study the master's course gathered for team-building meetings and to get to know each other. The course included representatives from 18 different master's programs at Chalmers.
"We need knowledge from the entire spectrum", says Anton Rosén. "Electrical systems, damping, programming – many different skills are required, and this makes the entire university work together. It is a big part of the challenge to work together in such a broad project."
In the beginning, a lot of time is spent on finding compromises – different groups of students have different wishes and interests in how the car should be designed, and of course not everything can be fulfilled for everyone. Through so-called packaging meetings, the plan for the car then gradually takes shape.
"Many devote their entire free time to Formula Student. In the past year, I have met my course mates more than my family", says Alexandra Lund and laughs.
Step by step, Chalmer's car took shape, and on June 8th the finished car was unveiled - even if some things were adjusted afterwards. Then it was time to put it to the test. About ten Formula Student competitions are hosted in Europe and USA, and Chalmers chose to compete in Hungary and Germany. The premiere took place in Hungary at the beginning of August, and it turned out to be quite a rollercoaster ride for the Gothenburg team.
Sensor broke
It started with a sensor for the autonomous system failing, rendering the car unable to drive. The team was of course devastated, but the rescue came from another team who lent their sensor to Chalmers.
"It was three times bigger than the one we had before, so we worked all evening to get it in place. Then we sat all night trying to get the software to work, and in some miraculous way we got it working", says Anton Rosén.
With a car that was once again ready to drive, they entered an event - and won.
"Everyone was completely ecstatic! But that same day, at the next event, we crashed. The new system did not see as far as the previous one, and the mounting of the new sensor was not as rigid."
"We felt 'what the hell are we going to do now?'", says Alexandra Lund. "How do we solve this? But we only had to work very methodically, those who could solve it had to sit and work undisturbed and fix it. We crashed on Friday afternoon, and by Saturday lunch the car was ready to drive again."
Strengthened by the ups and downs in Hungary, the team went on to Germany and the Hockenheimring, where the big triumph of the season was celebrated: Chalmers sweeped the floor with their competitors and won the overall gold in the class for self-driving cars. A historic victory in several ways – in the 20 years that Chalmers has entered the competition, it was only the second time that the university took home the overall victory, and the first time in the class for self-driving cars.
"We celebrated at the award ceremony, and with pizza and German beer. It was fun to see the whole team let loose, but of course we have to celebrate here at home too - it's on our schedule", says Alexandra Lund.
Many new experiences
The year with Formula Student has given her and her teammates a variety of new experiences.
"I applied to Formula Student because it is a project that is practical and close to work, and also theoretical. You get freedom, you get to customize, and the outcome becomes what you make of it. If it doesn't work, you can go back to the drawing board - it's a very good experience for the future."
Her colleague Elin Nilsson, who studies materials technology, fills in:
"It is very good to be able to do a project from start to finish. Getting to design the car, build it, and get to see the whole process, and get to work a lot with others that you wouldn't have had the chance to work with otherwise."
Kevin Bielecki also highlights that the year with Formula Student has given him the opportunity to try things and take on challenges that are normally not part of his education.
"I have no history of working in management, but I took on the main task of talking to sponsors. I learned a lot about it along the way - even if you're studying an engineering degree, it's really fun to try out working with something completely different."
With the course completed and a gold on their CV, the four now move on and work as managers for six months with the next batch of students who will take join Chalmers' Formula Student team.
"We are involved in the beginning and support, make sure that the right people are recruited for the next team, and give them a little push forward", says Kevin Bielecki.
"Almost unreal"
Björn Pålsson is associate professor at the Department of Mechanics and Maritime Sciences, and responsible for the Formula Student course at Chalmers. For him, the most important thing is that the team manages to build a car, manages to get it through the inspection and gets the opportunity to realize the car's potential in some events, but he is of course extremely happy about the great results for this year's team.
"It was almost surreal to see them as overall winners", he says. "If I have to highlight some particular success factors for this year's team, it is partly that we have had an unusually big and strong team that built a fine car, and partly that the concept was the same as last year, which allowed them to focus on refinement. We've also had a great group working with the autonomous system that has tested a lot and improved last year's system step by step. It was already clear during testing that they had developed a very competitive system, but then the potential must be realized in competition as well."
He highlights the project's external sponsors as well as the Department of Mechanics and Maritime Sciences, Chalmers' undergraduate education and the Area of Advance of Transport.
"It is thanks to them that we can offer this type of educational project", he says. "I would also like to mention Stefan Lundberg at electrical power engineering who supervises the electrical subgroups and who contributes strongly to the project."
If you are curious about the Chalmers Formula Student course, and maybe are a Chalmers student and are thinking about participating in the future, Björn Pålsson recommends following the course on social media.
"There you can follow the team's activities during the year, and there we also advertise our public events such as the design presentation and the unveiling of the new car."
Contact
Björn Pålsson, docent, Department of Mechanics and Maritime Sciences
bjorn.palsson@chalmers.se, 031-772 14 91
More about Chalmers Formula student
https://www.chalmersformulastudent.se/
Follow Chalmers Formula Student on social media
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