Inside Irvine Fall 2013
Inside Irvine has an article about the 2013 Solar Decathlon and XPO at the Orange County Great Park. Select this link to access the on-line magazine. See page 5 for descriptions of each of the 20 Universities competing in this event.
The UCI summer program Introduction to Racecar Engineering concluded with a track day on Saturday, August 3. Select this link to see slideshows of the activities.
The California Challenge joins three energy efficient racing events
The format of the California Challenge provides a same track same day comparison of the energy performance of a different types of energy efficient racers.
The California Challenge is an energy efficiency time trial. The goal is to achieve the maximum average speed using $1 of energy. The course includes a high speed section, an auto-cross section, and a staged idle section. Maximum distance in one-hour wins using $1 of any combination of energy sources wins. This event is presented as part of the Department of Energy Solar Decathlon in association with the Energy Expo.
Select this link for more information about the California Challenge.
Six-bar linkages
Our paper Numerical Synthesis of Six-bar Linkages for Mechanical Computation provides the mathematical theory that underlies the synthesis of a six-bar linkage with an input-output relationship that approximates a specified function. This describes how the Stephenson III six-bar linkage that sets the elevation for a ballistic trajectory was designed.
Race teams from 20 high schools and colleges competed in energy time trials at Adams Motorsports Park on May 11, 2013 at the fourth UCI Energy Invitational. This video captures the spirit of the event.
[vimeo]https://vimeo.com/72362324[/vimeo]
This Stephenson III six-bar linkage sets the elevation of a ballistic trajectory to reach a specified distance downrange given an initial velocity of 500 m/s. This function is described in Computing Linkages by A. Svoboda (pg 285). Mark Plecnik obtained this linkage after evaluating almost 100,000 different designs.
Waldron Inspires
This poster was prepared as a gift to Ken Waldron on his 70th birthday and given to him at a conference organized in his honor. Anuj Taneja generated the SolidWorks model in 2006 from the original drawings of the Adaptive Suspension Vehicle. I recently found the electronic files and Kaustubh Sonawale generated the four-view drawing. The ASV is an important feat of engineering and the stories shared by those who worked on it were wonderful.
Foothill HS at EI4
Photographs from the Energy Invitational 2013 can be seen at the Professor’s facebook page.
CSUN FSAE race team
The California State University Northridge Formula SAE race team will compete at the Energy Invitational on May 11, 2013.