The day was a heavily scheduled one for us as we had to complete the entire Dynamic events within the day.
I and Mounikrishna presented the Marketing plan of our vehicle. We were supposed to establish a business plan and production plan layout along with proper strategies to put our vehicle into the market. We also had to design a poster stating the theme of our Efficycle (thanks to Sakthi Anna for helping us with the poster). The judges raised a few questions on our marketing strategy and gave good comments on our presentation.
It was followed by the Cost Evaluation where we were supposed to give the exact fabricated cost of our vehicle. We were also supposed produce all the bill of the items procured along with a well maintained Bill of Materials. Omar Ziyad was in-charge of the BOM and kept track of all the materials purchased and costs involved during the fabrication stage. All the members were instructed to keep him informed about the material purchases for easy recording.
We then attended the Design 1 round. It evaluated the dynamic parameters of our vehicle such as suspension, steering, drive train etc. We were asked to justify our selection of suspension and the mounting points of the shock absorbers. I was asked about the motor torque, number of teeth on the gears. I was also asked why we chose BLDC over PMDC motor and was asked to draw the internal circuit diagram of the BLDC controller. Now this was something that I really didn’t know much about and I said I’ll need time. I was given ten minutes to answer it while the other teammates were asked to calculate the transmission ratio along the Torque, speed of individual gears. I drew the circuit diagram and explained him about the conversion of DC to Three Phase AC and in the meantime my fellow mates came up with the transmission ratios.
We still had four more rounds to be completed and chose to attend the Maneuverability test. The track consisted of straight lines 45 degree turns and “8” track. We were confident with our steering system but the marks were allotted on the basis of time taken to maneuver the track. This built up a tension and we completed the track with a penalty of crossing the track once.
We then attended the Acceleration test. We were asked to cover a specified distance and the time taken to complete the track was noted. There were separate rounds for Manual and Electric drive.
It was followed by the Utility test where we had to maneuver the track with 20kg payload. The additional weight of 20kg didn’t even seem to matter to our vehicle cause of its heavy weight. The track too was completed within the time limit.
The next round was the Gradient test. We were asked to climb a slope of 4° in the Electric mode. This was challenging to use since our motor needed a small push to pull its weight and this wasn’t allowed. The vehicle was supposed to be in a standstill position and had to climb the slope using Electric motor. We tried to run the motor but the motor started heating up not able to pull the weight. It was only then we noticed that our batteries were almost drained since we were running on it from the morning. It was Mathew Sir who identified the problem. We asked the judges for some time to charge our batteries and immediately switched our drained batteries with new ones. The fresh batteries were able to give the required power to motor and the vehicle was able to climb the slope easily.
We cleared all the static and dynamic events and were qualified to final Endurance test. Only 63 teams out 90 got qualified for the final round of endurance test.
Aby Thannikal Joseph
B.E. Mechatronics Engineering
Hindusthan College of Engineering and Technology (2011 - 2015 Batch)
I and Mounikrishna presented the Marketing plan of our vehicle. We were supposed to establish a business plan and production plan layout along with proper strategies to put our vehicle into the market. We also had to design a poster stating the theme of our Efficycle (thanks to Sakthi Anna for helping us with the poster). The judges raised a few questions on our marketing strategy and gave good comments on our presentation.
It was followed by the Cost Evaluation where we were supposed to give the exact fabricated cost of our vehicle. We were also supposed produce all the bill of the items procured along with a well maintained Bill of Materials. Omar Ziyad was in-charge of the BOM and kept track of all the materials purchased and costs involved during the fabrication stage. All the members were instructed to keep him informed about the material purchases for easy recording.
We then attended the Design 1 round. It evaluated the dynamic parameters of our vehicle such as suspension, steering, drive train etc. We were asked to justify our selection of suspension and the mounting points of the shock absorbers. I was asked about the motor torque, number of teeth on the gears. I was also asked why we chose BLDC over PMDC motor and was asked to draw the internal circuit diagram of the BLDC controller. Now this was something that I really didn’t know much about and I said I’ll need time. I was given ten minutes to answer it while the other teammates were asked to calculate the transmission ratio along the Torque, speed of individual gears. I drew the circuit diagram and explained him about the conversion of DC to Three Phase AC and in the meantime my fellow mates came up with the transmission ratios.
We still had four more rounds to be completed and chose to attend the Maneuverability test. The track consisted of straight lines 45 degree turns and “8” track. We were confident with our steering system but the marks were allotted on the basis of time taken to maneuver the track. This built up a tension and we completed the track with a penalty of crossing the track once.
We then attended the Acceleration test. We were asked to cover a specified distance and the time taken to complete the track was noted. There were separate rounds for Manual and Electric drive.
It was followed by the Utility test where we had to maneuver the track with 20kg payload. The additional weight of 20kg didn’t even seem to matter to our vehicle cause of its heavy weight. The track too was completed within the time limit.
The next round was the Gradient test. We were asked to climb a slope of 4° in the Electric mode. This was challenging to use since our motor needed a small push to pull its weight and this wasn’t allowed. The vehicle was supposed to be in a standstill position and had to climb the slope using Electric motor. We tried to run the motor but the motor started heating up not able to pull the weight. It was only then we noticed that our batteries were almost drained since we were running on it from the morning. It was Mathew Sir who identified the problem. We asked the judges for some time to charge our batteries and immediately switched our drained batteries with new ones. The fresh batteries were able to give the required power to motor and the vehicle was able to climb the slope easily.
We cleared all the static and dynamic events and were qualified to final Endurance test. Only 63 teams out 90 got qualified for the final round of endurance test.
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| Qualified for Endurance Run!! |
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| There's always a time for Selfies! |
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| That's me! :) |
B.E. Mechatronics Engineering
Hindusthan College of Engineering and Technology (2011 - 2015 Batch)
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