Student Projects
National Instruments
LabVIEW STUDENT DESIGN CONTEST '11
*Visit the official "Submit Entry" page to enter your NI LabVIEW student design project in the competition*
Contact Information
University: University of Texas at Austin
Team Member(s): Matthew Amme, Fred Engelkemeir, Andrew Hwang, Pedro Viteri
Faculty Advisors: Dr. Ronald Matthews
Email Address: matthew.amme@mail.utexas.edu
Project Information
Title: Data Acquisition and Active Controls for UTexas FormulaSAE Car
Description:
Our project used the cRio-9025 in order to create a real-time data acquisition box for our formulaSAE car. This box was also responsible for launch control, dashboard control, and active temperature control. Formula SAE is a worldwide competition in which universities compete against each other to build the most efficient, reliable and quick open-wheel racecar.
Products:
Labview 2010 (RT and FPGA), cRio 9025, NI 9205 Analog input module, NI 94303 Digital Input/Output Module, DIAdem
The Challenge:
The challenge for our team was to create a reliable Data Acquisition box. This box would need to sample multiple inputs at different rates and log all the data for review. Using these inputs the system would control other systems in the car such as cooling (dependent on engine temperature) and traction control (dependent on wheel slip). The system would need several outputs to provide these controls for the system as well as simple controls for the dashboard of the car.
The Solution:
The solution to our challenge was to use the analog input module along with the digital I/O module to sample sensors as seen in the table below.The first requirement was to sample and log all of the data from these sensors, and secondly to use these sensors to actively control other systems.
| Sensor | Rate |
|---|---|
| 4- Wheel speeds | 500Hz |
| 4 Tire temperatures, steering angle, oil pressure, engine temperature, RPM, throttle position, 3-Axis gyroscope, and 3-axis accelerometer | 20Hz |
| GPS | 10Hz |
We accomplished the first requirement by using an FPGA fifo to pass the shock data up to the real-time controller. 20 times a second the real-time controller will store 25 shock values and one value of each of the other sensors (because they do not need such high speed logging). Using the produced tdms files the drivers and team captain can synchronize video data with the data logged from these sensors and provide feedback to each other. This data is not only useful in tuning many aspects of the car, but also helping the drivers improve as they can watch their data and see when and where on the track they could perform better.
The active control systems are traction control (using the wheel speed sensors), active temperature control (using engine temperature), as well as interacting with the dashboard. We firstly accomplished traction control by measuring the wheel speed in the front and rear of the car by measuring the frequency given off by the wheel speed sensors. The frequency is converted into a useable rate and if the ratio of wheel speed difference between the front and rear is too high the cRio has the power to cut spark to the engine until the wheel speeds normalize. The active temperature control is implemented by switching relays depending on the current engine temperature. Water pumps are switched on at 170 degrees fahrenheit and a radiator fan at 220 degrees. The output on the dashboard is shift lights and warning lights depending on engine RPM, engine temperature and oil pressure. The system can also output data onto a two line LCD screen in the dash as well.
Given that the cRio gives us the oppurtunity to actively monitor the car, the placement of a wireless router inside the box provided us wireless access to the cRio. This allows us to monitor the car wirelessly, and turn on/off certain I/O's if necessary.
Using labview and the NI cRio greatly assisted in the production of this data acquisition system, however, without DIAdem this data acquisition system would not be possible. DIAdem provided an easy intuitive interface that could gather data from several sources and synchronize them together, greatly improving our team's testing and tuning efficiency. Labview provided for an easy environment to set it up and the online forums provided many example code and help docs to get through the rough patches. Without the cRio or other crucial software like DIAdem the team would not have been able to accomplish the data acquisition with such ease.
DAQ input board including accelerometer, gyro, and GPS.
dash pcb
The files included:
FPGA - FPGA code
launch - launch control code (inputs ECU 0 & 1 cut spark when false)
RT - data acquisition code
