Preparations for the autonomous test drive © AMZ

At the starting line© FSG, Shidhartha

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AMZ NewsDRIVERLESS - THE GRAND FINALE

A season completed

With this, the season comes to an end. The team had to overcome mul-tiple challenges and problems, but in the end managed to make it a success. Some of the highlights of the season were: attending the ZF and Norelem race camps, exhibiting AMZ cars at the Formula E Zurich, and performing at Formula Student Italy and Formula Stu-dent Germany.

In addition to technical work packa-ges, team members acquire organisati-on, time management and working in a team. This experience adds extra value above the knowledge gained in a lec-ture hall, which is well recognized by the companies present at the events.

Formula Student Germany

The grand finale of the season for ‹‹gotthard driverless›› was the prestigi-ous event at Hockenheimring on 6-12 August 2018. With over 110 registered teams, 17 of which were driverless, the

competition was very tough, be it in the static or dynamic events.

The competition lasted a full week, with the driverless team being ready to register early on Monday morning. Each team receives a space in the pits, right next to the main straight of the race track. This serves as a temporary work-shop, where teams store all their tools and work on the car.

Scrutineering

Monday and Tuesday were reserved exclusively for scrutineering. All teams with electric vehicles must pass the me-chanical and electrical scrutineering, as well as the tilt, rain and brake test, to be allowed to take part in the dynamic events. Scrutineers assess the vehicles to make sure that they comply with the rules. If the vehicle does not comply with any of the checks right away, the team might have to fix it on the spot or queue again after fixing it in the pit. In addition to the checks that apply to all electric cars, driverless electric cars must also pass autonomous scrutineering and

Emergency Brake System (EBS) test. In the autonomous scrutineering, some of the safety functionalities of the auto-nomous system is tested, including the logic of the autonomous state machine. The EBS brake test proves the functio-nality of the EBS, by accelerating auto-nomously to at least 40kph within 20m, and then coming to a complete stop safely within 10m.

At the end, 10 out of the 17 driver-less teams passed scrutineering and were allowed to participate in the dyna-mic events.

Statics

On Wednesday, the static events took place. The cost event was first, where the team presented a detailed bill of materials including every part of the car, as well as explanations and insights into the manufacturing processes used.

Directly after, the team prepared to show off the design of ‹‹gotthard dri-verless›› to the judges committee from industry. This gave the team the chance

Award ceremony at Formula Student Germany© FSG, Maru

to show the knowledge they obtained during the season, and justify the de-sign choices made. In the afternoon was the business plan presentation, an event to present a detailed business plan for a start-up company involving autonomous race cars, to try to con-vince the judges that it would be worth investing in.

As the design event went well, we were lucky enough to have another chance to impress in the design finals on Thursday afternoon, where the top three teams underwent tough questioning to see which team deserved the prize.

Dynamics

At last, on Thursday the wheels star-ted rolling on the test track for driver-less, as teams got a chance to practice a few more times before the real events on Friday. Acceleration was first: ‹‹gott-hard›› accelerated along the 75m track, coming to a stop within the 30m space after the finish line. The skidpad event was quite exciting, with ‹‹gotthard›› completing three trials, each one faster than the previous. At just above 5 se-conds per circle, the times of ‹‹gotthard driverless›› was already comparable

to those of a car with driver, which is a promising sign for the next driverless season.

Trackdrive is one of the most import-ant events for driverless, as winning the trackdrive event means achieving 325 points, out of the 1000 points total for the competition. Unfortunately ‹‹gott-hard›› did not complete all ten laps in the first attempt. This left only the se-cond attempt. But ‹‹gotthard›› did not disappoint; he zoomed around the track at a top speed of 15m/s, and when he came to a stop at the end of the 10 laps, the whole team cheered along with the spectators! Footage can be seen at

https://goo.gl/hecDW5

Driverless teams could relax on Sunday and watch the edurance race of combustion and electric teams, since only the award ceremony in the evening was left.

Results

The team is delighted to announce that ‹‹gotthard driverless›› received the first overall place for the driverless divisi-on, as well as first place for engineering

design, trackdrive, efficiency and skid-pad. To top it off, ‹‹eiger›› also achieved first place in the electric division, scoring AMZ Racing a double win.

We are immensely proud, and would like to congratulate the teams from Kar-lsruhe and Hamburg for second and third place in the driverless division. While all teams are competing against eachother, we are extremely thankful also for the help that teams offer eacho-ther, whether it be spare parts, advice or a much needed snack at the right time.

Outlook for 2019

The team is already preparing for the next season, with a final team mee-ting to reflect on the year’s results, and which opportunities and challenges lie ahead for the team of 2019. To ensu-re success for future driverless gene-rations, knowledge transfer to the new team is crucial.

Of course, the seasons success is all made possible due to the support of our valuable sponsors. Therefore we would like to thank them extraordinarily one more time!

‹‹gotthard›› at Formula Student Germany© FSG, Shidhartha

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The team at Formula Student Germany© FSG, Maru