Organization Of A Multi Disciplinary Capstone Design Project For The Sae Formula Hybrid Competition

Many real-world projects require the application and knowledge of multiple disciplines and most professional engineers are required to regularly interact with co-workers with various backgrounds. Since capstone senior design projects are intended to prepare students for real world situations, the adaptation of multi-disciplinary teams to fulfill the senior design requirement has several advantages. For the project described in this paper, a capstone design team was organized for three degree programs; Mechanical Engineering (ME), Electrical Engineering (EE) and Engineering Physics (EP). Aerospace Engineering students were included in the project through participation in a minor course of study in ‘High Performance Vehicles,” administered through the Mechanical Engineering program. The design goal of the project was to analyze, design and build a functioning parallel hybrid-electric race car. The vehicle will compete at an event endorsed by SAE International and IEEE, called the SAE Formula Hybrid Competition on May 1 st -3 rd 2007. This design project was selected as a multi-disciplinary project because it has sufficient technical challenges in each of the three degree areas. The primary challenges presented by this design project are: • High-Power Electronics (electric motors, actuators) • Mechanical system design (suspension, chassis, drivetrain) • Energy storage and management (energy storage device and control) • Regenerative electric/hydraulic braking systems • Digital control systems