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Time constraints? Answers this with an explanation that route understanding is most important
Route book given (known), breakdown into elevations, road conditions, awareness of lanes (tight passing?), where cities/towns are
consider time limit, research routes and investigate likely areas of trouble, perhaps consideration of likely traffic constraints wherever they occur
City segments? How to handle this?
Not a lot of time spent in cities/towns - past had East Coast routes so this problem was there - however in this case, try to get out of towns/cities and their traffic when you can
Consider when traffic lights may shift their logic if possible - ie., timing lights? Perhaps just check history of traffic on route roads in Maps depending on time of day - could we build this in
Would we be able to speed up to avoid these?
Assume some lost sunlight to shade in cities/towns?
Annotate route conditions as you go? I didn’t catch why Emma Wai (Deactivated) by having the lead vehicle go ahead of time to check for road hazards and constructions and keep it on routebook
Some teams have tried to time lights (ahead of time), the best is to keep momentum - very hard to to do this, especially as city traffic networks usually change as the day goes on to handle expected conditions
Account and try to calculate the impacts of city segments, don’t be surprised
Best to have a very good idea of what the car is capable (extensive testing) - don’t force it beyond its capabiltiescapabilities, drivers will often get a feel for this as they draw – build Driver profiles seems to be an idea brought up by Menon in his presentation, and now again by Dan
Do not neglect how training drivers and having them be comfortable with the solar car is very important
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Pick a route, run it multiple times through different scenarios - without array, with array, different drivers
Vary route after you get a good feel of one type of terrain(s); try other ones
Aerodynamic drag for a given speed is important info
Attempt to identify impacts of different weather conditions (winds) - crosswinds etc on aero drag
Teams can get penalized for driving fast through strong winds
Good to set up telemetry to see these impacts in real time
Dan’s team would try to run the same circuit with different gaps, speeds, etc to test the motor’s efficiency and other tradeoffs in a constant road environment
Consider the most efficient speed - not always the best speed at the same time, it may be too low to be competitive for instance
Consider modelling individual driver style and driving energy draw profiles
Some are more capable with steering, braking control, etc.
Understand what your array can produce in varying weather conditions
Getting current into battery can also have problems - ex he gives is that battery may have a hard time getting energy from solar at 90% since it’s more difficult to charge then
As we are a cruiser class/MOV, our weight is very important
The array will be adding energy, however likely will never get an energy in = energy out as the Challengers do
Elevations and motor torque profile are very important
You may have power, but pushing speeds that you can’t maintain is hard
Consider penalty of charging - hard to model, but suboptimal situations will always occur
There is a strategic value and you need to be able to take in this kind of charge effectively without losing back
The most important part though is how the battery affects how you tackle terrain and elevations with your heavy weight and extra passengers
Better to have the chase car to act as a HQ for strategy than the solar car, have a very good real time sync 👀
Not mentioned, but this seems to be a call out for very good and reliable networking/telemetry
Dan has heard of teams using MathWorks (MATLAB) to do simulations and vehicle modelling
Clearly the takeaway through this Q&A is test test test!!!
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