University Racing Eindhoven 2021-2022

University Racing Eindhoven (URE) is a student team from Eindhoven University of Technology. The team was founded in 2003. With a group of about 70 students, we participate in the Formula Student competition, which is the biggest design competition for students all over the world. The goal of the team is to educate the engineers of the future and build a fully electric (and autonomous) race vehicle.

This past summer, we have been hard at work designing the next contender for URE, the URE16. The aim for the URE16 is to bring new innovations into the team, to bring URE to the next level. We will be making some big changes to the car that will bring new performance into the team.

The first change will be a powertrain upgrade. We will raise the system voltage from 400V to 600V. Based on previous research by the team, 600V has come out as big step in the right direction in terms of performance and efficiency. URE has wanted to make this step for a while now, so we are incredible excited to finally pursue this goal.

Most high voltage electronics in the car have been designed for 400V for the past few years. It is now the job of the team to revisit the designs that have been used for so long and redesign them for 600V. This change to 600V will also bring along some new challenges. The team is working hard to implement a new motor controller, as well as new motors. Of course, without an accumulator there is no power in the car, so together with our now powertrain we will also revise and build our own 600V accumulator and charger.

Of course, not only the electronics of the car will receive enhancements this year. The URE16 will also have a new monocoque design. The monocoque hasn’t seen any changes in recent years, so it was time for a new and fresh look of the modern day URE car. Our focus has been on improving the monocoque aerodynamically. The team has introduced a tapered design at the back in combination with a new lifted nose and undertray design. The core of this composition is to guide the air underneath the vehicle so that the air will suck the car to the ground, resulting in improved ground effect as well as a better lift-over-drag ratio.

Alongside all the electric vehicle (EV) changes, URE is still working on our driverless platforms (DV). After last season’s amazing performances in Spain with driverless, we are doubling down on driverless development. We will be re-introducing the URE14 as our DV testing vehicle. At the moment, we are hard at work rebuilding the URE14 and start testing as soon as possible. With the URE14, we can start testing right away, instead of having to wait for the URE16 to be finished. In this way the team can keep improving the driverless software and make bigger improvements than ever before.

All in all, the team is very motivated to be working on a new car this year. Especially in the hard times of Corona last year(s), it is great to see so many people excited again. Sadly, the Corona pandemic still has some lingering effects at the moment. The electrical component shortage has already made a big impact on our design, which means that we need to always adapt quickly. Luckily, we have Eurocircuits to help us in this regard. With their amazing support and services, we are confident that the many new PCB designs will become great with the PCB printing and delivery of Eurocircuits!