Nearly twenty vehicles came out for the event including classic Chevy’s to the Fisker Karma, the newly released hybrid sports-car. In addition to these vehicles, three local dealerships were represented at the event: Coughlin, Bobby Layman and Germain. Coughlin Automotive sponsored the EOT show by providing the team with multiple vehicles, including the 2013 Chevy Malibu, which was front and center at the show! In addition, Coughlin provided exhibitors with free oil changes and three $150 prizes for the “best in show’ vehicles!

The advanced vehicle section was also a huge section with over ten vehicles on display! Vehicles on display from OSU included the EcoCAR vehicle, the ChallengeX vehicle, the Buckeye Bullet, and the original GM EV1. Germain provided a Nissan Leaf and multiple hybrid models from Ford, Lexus and Mazda for the EOT show, and Bobby Layman provided a Chevy Cruze-Eco and a Chevy Volt. Despite the rainy, cold weather, the event attracted multiple attendees, including the Honorable Andrew Douglas, a retired Ohio Supreme Court Justice. The team had a chance to talk with him about the EcoCAR competition and grab a few pictures! After the event, ABC 6 and Fox 28 featured a special on the news about the show!

The team would like to thank all EOT exhibitors, sponsors, and attendees, especially the Sid Griffith Equestrian Center and Coughlin Automotive!

The team hopes to see everyone at the next EOT show! Check out photos from the event on the team’s Flickr account.

Learn more about 83 Gallery at http://83gallery.com/

Designing and advanced hybrid vehicle is a very difficult task; it takes multiple years and many skilled engineers to produce a consumer acceptable vehicle. These challenges are presented daily to our team at Ohio State. As a new member to the EcoCAR 2 team, I am grateful to have the support of a very experienced and knowledgeable team.

As the team’s engine control systems lead, I am responsible for programming code to allow the engine to run as efficiently as possible. One of my main tasks this year is using the dSPACE Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) simulator to assist in developing our team’s engine control algorithm. In using the dSPACE HIL, our team will be able to test, calibrate, and validate our control code before implementing it on a physical engine. One of the main advantages and reasons we use HIL simulation is that it allows our team to test new code without worrying about causing damage to our actual engine hardware, which saves time and cots for the team.

This year, our team will be transferring our engine code from our old engine control unit to ETAS’s new FlexECU. This is no simple task, as there are many control actions and decisions that are made inside the engine control code, and it is difficult to directly transfer one code to another. This is where the dSPACE HIL simulator proves to be a very effective source of validating the new code. Using the simulator in parallel with Simulink from Mathworks, our team is able to verify if our new engine controller is behaving correctly; making the same decisions and control actions as the previous controller. Another way the team will utilize the dSPACE HIL simulator is to test for fault mitigation. As safety is a top priority, we want to implement safety measures in the engine control code that will be able to detect if anything is not behaving the way it should and to take the correct action to mitigate the fault. The simulator is very effective in the sense that we can simulate an engine hardware failure and see the engine controller’s response.

There is a lot of work ahead to be completed, but I am looking forward to the challenge!

By: Amanda Hyde

Safety is very important in hybrid vehicles today. The complexity of OSU’s EcoCAR 2 design with both an E85 engine and two electric motors makes safety one of the team’s highest priorities, especially during the design stages of Year 1. This is precisely what I have been working on this year. I am the leader of the fault diagnosis team which means that I get to work with members of the design team for each subsystem on the car, such as the engine, front and rear powertrain, batteries, and controls, to identify potential hazards in the vehicle. Together the fault diagnosis team finds effective preventative measures to prevent safety hazards before they happen as well as preparing the car to react safely and protect passengers from harm in the event that a component does become damaged or faulty while driving.

Organizing and analyzing safety diagnostic information from the entire vehicle is an enormous task, but it is made possible with the use of professional fault diagnosis software from Byteworx and Isograph. These purpose-built programs help me to organize and view information from all of the various subsystems separately or at once, allow me to see how they interact, and also help me determine the likelihood of potential problems and dangers that they would pose. This allows me to take a comprehensive look at the needed safety features and to choose the best possible measures to prevent and mitigate problems.

These safety measures will soon be tested on the team’s Hardware-in-the-Loop simulator using dSPACE AutomationDesk software. AutomationDesk allows the team to run automated tests of the safety features to ensure that they are all functional and effective. Automated testing means that we can run a comprehensive safety test of a subsystem or of the entire vehicle in only a fraction of the time it would take to do by hand! All of these tests and simulations are also helping us to prepare for the Year 1 competition that is fast approaching. I can’t wait to go to LA and share all of our team’s hard work!

The Year 1 EcoCAR 2 competition that starts on May 18th is about seven weeks away, so the engineering team has been hard at work for the past month designing the vehicle’s mechanical, electrical and control systems.

The mechanical team has been busy over the past month figuring out how to package all the powertrain components in the vehicle and then creating mounting brackets for them. One of the biggest challenges our team faces on the front powertrain is packaging the engine, the clutch between the engine and transmission, the front electric machine, the inverter and the 6-speed transmission in such a way that it fits within the width of the engine bay. Additionally our team also has to make multiple adapter shafts for the front powertrain components, since each of the components has a different type of input shaft. As we’ve found out over the past few months, every half inch of space that we can save by selecting more compact components helps a lot! Then on the rear powertrain, the mechanical team needs to find a way to mount the rear electric machine and single speed gearbox to the rear cradle we will be placing inside the Malibu. To complicate the rear powertrain problem even more, we also need to place an 18.9kW-hr battery pack in the trunk of the Malibu and the rear electric machine’s inverter, while still maintaining at least seven cubic feet of cargo space. Over the past two months our team has probably gone through at least 10 different configurations of the battery pack and rear powertrain components. We think we’ve finally found one that works now, but we still have a lot of detailed design work to do on it before the competition in May.

The controls team has been busy for the past month designing code for the team programmed controllers and setting up our team’s dSPACE Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) system. For the EcoCAR 2 competition, our team has decided to program our own engine controller, transmission controller and vehicle supervisory controller. Our team doesn’t have a vehicle this year, so as we create code for these three controllers we test it on our team’s HIL equipment. The HIL equipment is essentially a powerful computer with I/O boards on it that is capable of running our hybrid vehicle model in real time. The HIL’s I/O boards are used to connect the three team programmed controllers to the hybrid vehicle model through the Controller Area Networks (CAN) that we setup. The I/O boards are very useful because they let us connect a variety of actuators to the HIL equipment, so that we can make sure the code we create can move the actuators correctly. Right now we’re in the process of setting up our 6-speed transmission, its actuators and the transmission controller with the HIL equipment so that we can create the basic shift logic for the transmission this year, before we get the Malibu this summer!

The show is on Rain or Shine! There are indoor facilities for all vehicles!

Public Information 

You don’t want to miss this!! The Evolution of Transportation is a one-of-a-kind auto show that is unlike any other auto show in Central Ohio!

Date: April 28th
Time: 12-5pm 
Location: Sid Griffith Equestrian Center
7380 Scioto Darby Rd
Hilliard, OH 43026

This auto show will feature four different “stations”- horses, classic cars, contemporary cars, and advanced vehicles. In addition, there will be horse demonstrations and free pony rides provided by the OSU Hunt Seat Equestrian Team. Be sure to check out the Coughlin display featuring a 2013 Chevrolet Malibu! Read more at  http://www.coughlinauto.com/

Mark your calendars and enjoy this free AND family-fun event!

Exhibitor Information

Come out and display your car at this cost-free auto show! Bring any models, any year, any kind of automobile! The auto show is FREE.

 Car registration will be from 10-11:30am on April 28th

If you plan on attending, please complete this pre-registration form:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGdQVnZRNTFwMlYzY2Zxb2xWTWJpaUE6MQ

 If you have any questions/concerns, please contact the OSU Outreach Coordinators: Sarah (jadwin.8@osu.edu) or Tyler (jowsick.3@osu.edu)

Sid Griffith Equestrian Center:

Facebook: Sid Griffith Equestrian Center

Katherine told the President, “I speak for all the participants in the EcoCAR 2 competition when I say EcoCAR 2 has been an amazing opportunity to learn about advanced automotive technologies. Every student has had the chance to gain hands-on experience with these vehicles and apply what they’ve learned in the classroom to real life. It is an amazing opportunity.”

“It was an honor to meet him and an honor to represent the EcoCAR 2 teams. It was wonderful to meet a government leader who is so passionate about advanced energy and creating a better tomorrow. He was excited to hear about all the projects at CAR,” said Tyler Joswick, co-outreach coordinator, after visiting with President Obama.

After the tour at the Center for Automotive Research, President Obama presented to students and faculty about his new energy plan and ways to conserve energy use while developing alternative fuels. In his speech, President Obama mentioned how much he enjoyed his tour at the Center for Automotive Research!

“More clean and renewable energy- You know what I am talking about here because this school is a national leader in developing new sources of energy and advanced vehicles that use a lot less energy,” said President Obama during his speech at the Ohio State recreation center.

The Ohio State team was honored to represent the EcoCAR 2 competition and all its participants yesterday. Thanks for visiting, President Obama!

More pictures from President Obama’s visit!!

*All photos courtsey of Ohio State Photography