Focus Projects

The IFD faculty has been involved in the following focus project as part of the Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering offered by D-MAVT.

aCentauri

In the fall semester 2022, a team of nine mechanical & electrical engineering students set out with a vision to design and build a solar race car to compete in the Bridgestone World SolarChallenge 2023. Under the auspices of Prof. Patrick Jenny's research group at IFD, they implemented their vision with skill, energy, creativity, many helping hands from friends & colleagues, and generous donations from sponsors that contributed the lion-share of the project funds.

The result was a road-service-approved single-seater that weighs less than 140 kilos, can reach top speeds of 130km/h, includes a battery with a (fully battery-powered) reach of 400km, and is equipped with around 4m² of solar panels. These specifications were the result of state of the art components, that were integrated with a specifically-designed and optimized chassis, drivetrain, aeroshell, and electronics circuitry. The aeroshell has undergone a particularly thorough optimization as aerodynamic drag accounts for roughly 75% of all losses.

aCentauri solar racer components including the chassis (white), the drivetrain (light blue), and the electronics (red).
The aeroshell of the aCentauri solar racer is central as its optimization has the biggest impact on the minimization of losses.
The Bridgestone World SolarChallenge spans the entire Australian continent from Darwin in the north to Adelaide in the south.

The aCentauri team successfully completed the race from Darwin in the north of Australia to Adelaide in the south. A selection of 32 teams from 27 countries were competing over the 3000-kilometer/5-day journey through the Australian outback under different road conditions and with temperatures oscillating between 10 to 40 degrees Celsius.

For more details, have a look at the websites of the external page Bridgestone World SolarChallenge 2023, the external page aCentauri team and the ETH news article.