Every year, a team of Chalmers students design and build their own formula car. The end goal is Formula Student, the world’s largest student engineering competition. This year, Automässan visitors will be able to view the 200-kilo formula car.

Ever since 2002, students from the Chalmers Formula Student course have been designing and constructing their own formula cars to compete against teams from technical universities from all over the world. At the 2015 competition, internal combustion engines were replaced by electric engines, and in 2017, a new event was introduced – it was time for self-driving cars to enter the racetrack.

This year’s Chalmers team included around 30 students, mainly Master students from Mobility Engineering, who spent just under a year working hard to produce a ready-to-go car on time. All stages had to be completed within a few months, from the feasibility study, design, and digital construction to physically building and finally testing the car.

At the competition, cars are scored in static events, where the car’s construction and economy are assessed. These are followed by dynamic events that involve track driving, including acceleration, where the car must cover a certain distance in the shortest possible time from a standstill, a so-called “skidpad”, where the car must drive around a traditional figure 8 track, and track driving of different lengths. In the driverless event, the competitors use a remote control equipped with only a start button and an emergency stop button. Apart from that, the car must be able to manage itself and get around the track on its own.

Out of 24 competing teams at this summer’s competitions, the Chalmers team came in tenth in Austria and seventh in Hungary. Rank-wise, the Chalmers team did best among the Nordic teams. It was the German teams, however, that dominated the podiums.

During the Automässan trade fair, the latest formula car will be displayed on level 2.

Learn more: About Chalmers Formula Student

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