{"id":6442,"date":"2023-10-21T14:47:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-21T12:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jkk-web.sze.hu\/?p=6442"},"modified":"2024-10-31T14:49:40","modified_gmt":"2024-10-31T13:49:40","slug":"breaking-its-own-world-record-again-the-story-of-a-team-success-at-szechenyi-istvan-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jkk-web.sze.hu\/en\/breaking-its-own-world-record-again-the-story-of-a-team-success-at-szechenyi-istvan-university\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking its own world record again: the story of a team success at Sz\u00e9chenyi Istv\u00e1n University"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In May, the SZEnergy Team closed the Shell-Eco Marathon season with a double victory, winning both the energy efficiency and autonomous categories and breaking its own previous world record. The Sz\u00e9chenyi Istv\u00e1n University team has set the bar again, now even higher than usual with the goal for next year nothing less than a double title, and if possible with yet another world record. They announced their developmental program  that they believe is needed to achieve this during their annual design freeze event. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Winners never hesitate, and those who hesitate will never be winners.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– said Dr Istv\u00e1n Lakatos by summing up the spirit that has led to the success of the SZEnergy Team from Gy\u0151r, during his welcome speech to the team members at their annual design freeze event to present the team’s plans. Dr. Istv\u00e1n Lakatos is the Head of the Department of Road and Railway Vehicles at Sz\u00e9chenyi Istv\u00e1n University. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(Photo: Andr\u00e1s Adorj\u00e1n)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Every individual or organisation builds a recipe for success from different building blocks. According to Henry Ford, the formula is simple: you must always have the competencies you need at the right moment. This seems obvious, yet it is incredibly difficult to achieve. The SZEnergy Team has reached this level for performance and achievement.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– also said by the head of the department during his welcome speech. He further went on to say: “It is a big task and a huge responsibility to be the defending champion, you have to be able to manage success, so it is key to stay motivated.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“Our actions today and within the next six months can still prove to ourselves and others that there is always room to improve, there is always a road to higher ground” said Dr. Istv\u00e1n Lakatos. (Photo: M\u00e1t\u00e9 Dud\u00e1s)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was joined by Dr. Ferenc Szauter, Director of the University’s Centre for Automotive Research and founder of the SZEnergy Team, who during his welcoming speech outlined some of the potential new goals the team might be planning to set for itself. In doing this, he asked ChatGPT, the popular artificial intelligence-based chatbot of our time, to outline some possible future strategic success points for the team. Much to his surprise, the team\u2019s members had already ticked off a few of these points suggested by the AI program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“International success? The answer is yes as we say it with modesty, but in our hearts also with a good level of pride. We should be proud of this achievement as it is known that Western European universities teams are watching us and taking note of what we are up to. Should we establish a start-up? Well, with the participation of former and current team members, a spinoff company called Quatic has already been in existence for over a year now where they focus on the development of electric powertrain systems for go-karts. Are customised training programs needed? The answer is a natural yes as the team itself is a unique educational program, where \u201cstudents are challenged to do real engineering and this is the best way to learn.” All questions addressed by the program\u2019s director Dr Ferenc Sauter when discussing the teams and the programs milestones achieved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dr. Ferenc Szauter also pointed out that the brand \u201cSz\u00e9chenyi Motorsport\u201d has now been established in the Hungarian and European psyche, this includes the SZEnergy Team and other teams, all of which in total bring together the university’s students who develop and drive racing vehicles under one umbrella. (Photo: M\u00e1t\u00e9 Dud\u00e1s)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the championship ceremonial speeches, team leader D\u00e1vid Krecz shared with the audience what the team forward vision is for this year’s Shell-Eco Marathon. The European race will be held again this year at the end of May on the grounds of the Nogaro circuit in France, where both the energy efficiency and autonomous race, testing self-driving functions, will also take place. In the former race category, two vehicle types will be distinguished: prototype and small city car. While the powertrain for the vehicle being raced can be either internal combustion, electric, or hydrogen fuel cell, the Gy\u0151r-based vehicle, called SZEmission, will be an electric-powered city car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking back on the results of 2023, the team leader said that they had managed to retain their first place in the energy efficiency race, which they crowned with a new world record.  The result of 291 km\/kWh means that the car can cover 291 kilometres using only one kilowatt-hour of energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is an interesting fact to note that in 2022, they were only 5 percent better than the second-place car, but this year they are 20 percent better, quadrupling their lead. In addition, the team was able to achieve a double crown during the championships, as the members were able to climb to the top step of the podium in the autonomous event too,following last year’s silver medal category achievement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team of Sz\u00e9chenyi Istv\u00e1n University has worked for many years to reach the top, competing in the urban concept car category since 2013 when the solar class was discontinued. What next, the bar is set so high already? – the question may arise \u2013 asks D\u00e1vid Krecz. He answers his own question by saying \u201c we will not give up on winning this year: the aim is to win both categories, and in the energy efficiency race their goal is to topple their new world record by beating their own personal best.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlthough it may seem that the SZEnergy Team has got the most out of its car, there are still reserves of possible improvement in the vehicle,\u201d  points out Bal\u00e1zs F\u00fcr, head of the team\u2019s engineering development workgroup. During his discussion he goes on to further explain \u201cthat even a lower fuel consumption [compared to this year’s achievement] is conceivable.\u201d  He says, \u201cthat to achieve this improved end goal, the original chassis will be revised, in addition to the realisation of a completely new chassis design prototype, and only afterwards using comparison testing, will it be revealed which chassis will be fitted to the team\u2019s finalised race vehicle.. Other planned improvements included a new drivetrain made from 3D-printed carbon composite instead of machined aluminium parts, which will be much easier to assemble and weigh less.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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According to Bal\u00e1zs F\u00fcr, the measurements show that the car’s drag coefficient is only 0.136, which is significantly lower than even the lowest value of 0.2, a value hardly reached by most cars on the road today. (Photo: M\u00e1t\u00e9 Dud\u00e1s)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another team member, – Istv\u00e1n Kecskem\u00e9ti, head of the team’s electronics workgroup, explains, “the car’s idle power consumption is less than half a watt. This is the amount of power the car consumes after starting up until the engine is running. We can’t reduce this much, so we decided to increase the car’s reliability and safety this year,” a statement which<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 set out the direction of the electronics workgroup development plan for this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Istv\u00e1n Kecskem\u00e9ti went on to further divulge his engineering plan by saying, “our battery monitoring system has been working in the car since 2015, and it’s time to replace it. At that time, it was not designed for such heavy loads leading to the device\u2019s frequent replacement over the years. The planned new system will not only be easier to install but will also be able to withstand heavier loads and thus use.\u201d He went on to explain, \u201cthere were problems with our telemetry system, which revealed their ugly head this year. For example if the vehicle was hidden behind a physical barrier on the track or was far away the data link was lost and the pit lane would not receive any information about the car for a while which would lead us to improve the system by getting new antennas and rewriting our software.\u201d Finally he noted, as a third important improvement, we are replacing the car’s electronic panel with a more modern, more transparent printed circuit board.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“In this year’s race, the judges examined our car with a fine toothed comb just to make sure we weren\u2019t hiding any extra energy sources that would make our performance better than the others,\u201d said Istv\u00e1n Kecskem\u00e9ti, \u201cthey didn’t understand why our car was working so well.” (Photo: M\u00e1t\u00e9 Dud\u00e1s)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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One of this year’s developments is the new OLED display panel, which makes it easier for the driver to find his way around (Source: SZEnergy Team)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The developments of the autonomous technology area were presented by Mikl\u00f3s Unger, head of the team\u2019s workgroup, who stressed:\u201calthough they managed to win the autonomous category this year, the vehicle’s self-driving system did not always work as planned, there is room for improvement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mikl\u00f3s Unger went on to explain, “we had to complete three tasks this year, one after the other, which confused many teams. We had to get from one point of a non-straight section to another, then we had to avoid obstacles on a straight section, and finally we had to park in an empty parking space. Of these, we failed to complete the parking manoeuvre. The reason for the problem was that our algorithm made the decision based solely on the camera image  meaning this year we have to also include the data from the LIDAR laser scanner that scans the environment, which makes the system much more robust.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“[This year,] in order to give the vehicle better track perception [vision ability], we made hardware upgrades, installing both a new long range camera and a laser scanner. This made our solution less sensitive to different light conditions and allowed us to detect different objects much faster, improving the vehicle\u2019s reaction time and making it more quick,” said Unger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The vehicle tasks during the autonomous race (Source: SZEnergy Team)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mikl\u00f3s Unger demonstrated the car’s self-driving capabilities with a video (Photo: M\u00e1t\u00e9 Dud\u00e1s)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, team leader D\u00e1vid Krecz presented the results of the marketing and management workgroup, whose efforts were also very successful this year. Thanks to their brilliant performance, the media section has generated one and a half million views, an outstanding number on social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following this year’s successful recruitment phase for the team, it\u2019s headcount has now swelled to nearly half a century (50 members) and is now set up to achieve another world-class performance next May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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D\u00e1vid Krecz, team leader, said that they are paying special attention to fulfilling sponsorship contracts (Photo: M\u00e1t\u00e9 Dud\u00e1s)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The design freeze event ended with a sponsorship gratitude ceremony and reception. (Photos: M\u00e1t\u00e9 Dud\u00e1s)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is a design freeze? \u2013 it’s a major event in the life of any engineering design team as it marks the end of the design phase and the start of the manufacturing \u2013 prototype construction phase. For years, it has been a tradition to hold a closed invitation event between the two phases to present and inform partners, sponsors, other invited guests, and members of the press about the team\u2019s development trends for the current year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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