QUT Motorsport Electrical System

We are team of University students from the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia. We design, engineer and assemble a racecar to compete in the Formula SAE competition. Our current car in design is a four wheel drive electric vehicle. It features a full student designed custom electric system including; the control systems and circuity, HV battery management and custom 15kW inverters. This year we are finishing our custom inverter design powering our four 15Kw electric motors. Operating MOSFETs at 14Khz in a trapezoidal control operation to keep up with our motors 42 poles.

Currently we have a functional chassis controller as seen below which is based on the Atmega2560 controlling three CANBUS's for communication around the car. The controller also acts as the main input device for our custom pedals and steering wheel angle.

We also have a functional Shutdown/Safety board which enforces compliance with FSAE rules on shutdown states and ultimately ensures driver safety. Utilising durable FSAE level vibration rated relay logic for guaranteed operation in all instances.

Another visual example of our electrical system is our steering wheel control board that sits on the data CANBUS and displays driver selected and important information for the driver to see while they are traveling around the racetrack.

Another piece of core circuity is our power distribution module. Using MOSFET's with added current sensing. Controlling our custom brake light, accumulator contactors, cooling loop pump and fans and ready to drive siren.

All these mentioned are just some components that form our electrical system. All systems on the car need to be produced to a high standard to ensure the car can perform at its best in a safe manner. Most of these are the first working iteration and support from companies like PCB way mean we can keep developing and refining designs. Our team is unique in designing many of these parts ourselves rather than using off the shelf products.This would not be possible without the gracious support from industry. We are a team of the next generation of engineers hungry to develop the skills of the modern world.