UGent Racing: Inside the Autonomous Race Car Revolution

UGent Racing is a young and ambitious racing team from Ghent, founded in 2020. What started with just 10 members has rapidly grown into a team of 98 highly motivated students. Every year, we design and build an electric autonomous race car entirely from scratch. With several impressive achievements already on our CV, we are aiming even higher in the coming seasons.Last summer, we secured a Business Plan podium finish at Formula Student Netherlands. At FS Czech Republic, we successfully completed Endurance and Skidpad for the first time, and at FSG Germany, we drove autonomously for the very first time. An important milestone for our team.

This year, Eurocircuits once again supported us by providing top-quality PCBs for our car. Our electrical team spends months developing these components, and waiting for such crucial parts can be stressful. Fortunately, we can always rely on Eurocircuits: our designs are handled with great care, and we consistently receive high-quality, reliable PCBs.With partners like Eurocircuits by our side, we can continue pushing the boundaries of what a student racing team can achieve.

We would like to provide more insight into the technical aspects:

This season, our team has focused heavily on the optimization of our electronics, specifically two critical components that act as the nervous system of our vehicle: the ECU (Electronic Control Unit) and the SDC (Shutdown Circuit).

The SDC: The Analog Bodyguard

Safety is paramount in motorsport. The SDC is our car’s primary safety system. It acts as a hard-wired “bodyguard,” ensuring that if any critical fault is detected or if an emergency button is pressed, the car is immediately and safely shut down electrically. To ensure absolute fail-safe operation, we design the SDC as a fully non-coded system.

The ECU: The Digital Brain

While the SDC keeps us safe via hardware logic, the ECU acts as the intelligent “brain” of the vehicle. It is responsible for checking the state of our Low Voltage systems and handling complex multi-system protocols. The ECU’s most vital role is its communication with the SDC. It constantly monitors the SDC’s state while simultaneously broadcasting a “system okay” signal to the rest of the car. Additionally, the ECU manages the RTD (Ready To Drive) state, sending the signal to trigger the audio sound that lets everyone know the car is live.

For more information please visit the UGent Racing website.