R&D hub-motors controls lead designer for the year of 2023 and 2024 focused in continuing the development of torque vectoring controls and support low-voltage and harness integration in AIPEX Pro software user and setup for test bench validation with written user guide and documentations and aid in any electromagnetic interference (EMI) cable shielding. I am mainly tasked with managing and delegating tasks to subgroups of motors/drivetrain, torque vectoring, hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) and software-in-the-loop (SIL) focused on control aspect of controlling individual four in-hub motors.

My participation for the motor/drivetrain subgroup was to perform AIPEX Pro parameter tuning on the test bench to fix derating issue, power delivery limitation, rotational direction of the motors and to look into PID parameter tuning to prepare tuning on the actual car. Other work of improving Simulink model to implement the correct AMK motors and looking into PID parameter tuning was delegated to the other members.

My participation with the torque vectoring and tire subgroup focused on knowledge transfer of a previous master's student who developed the torque vectoring algorithms and vehicle body dynamics, improve the Simulink model, and adapt and develop the algorithm into C language code for the Vehicle Control Unit (VCU). 

Additional work include assisting inverter packaging in designing mounting brackets and mounting solution to fit onto an existing chassis that deals with high voltage and low voltage power and signal cables.

Design a component to add load to the motor by simulating added mass equivalent to the mass of the wheel and tire. First design used to test the spline fitment and adjust accordingly. The second revision allow addition of cylindrical masses covered and secured with M3 flat socket head screws.

Preliminary design for bottom mounting designs for the lower inverter enclosure to put onto an existing chassis that will become a test car for in-hub motors. Three different designs entailed an 6061 aluminum plate that will be mounted with bolts, a 1/8 inch aluminum 6061 or 5052 sheet metal design mounted with bolts that lifts the inverters to a specific height above the bottom portion of the chassis, and a simple cross bar design using 4130 aluminum 1 inch square tubing.

Design for bottom mounting designs for the lower inverter enclosure to put onto an existing chassis that will become a test car for in-hub motors. Utilizes 6061 aluminum sheet material for both the brackets and enclosure at 0.09 inch thick. FEA showed critical areas at the bracket to be sufficient at the maximum load with both the weight of the inverters and the enclosure. 

Front and rear enclosure mounting brackets focused on reusing existing mounting solution for motor and drivetrain mounting locations. The purpose was to retrofit into existing chassis without modifying it. This pose difficulty and safety concerns. Therefore, the results were to mount as shown without potential failing at the critical location (at the brackets). 

The load was calculated in combination of the inverters, cables, connectors, and the enclosure weight itself, which were all added together and then divided by four for four contact points (four mounting locations) as an estimated even distribution of bearing load along with that same area being a fixed location.

Designed IMU sensor mounting prototype in front of the driver seat and to use vibration-isolation foam or pad glued to the inner tubing area to reduce noise read by the IMU due to chassis vibrations.

Designed an improvement to prototype cell battery gluing guide housing to glue battery cells together for SRE-15. However, the main team decided to not use this method.

Simulink/MATLAB for VCU code validation, and improvement iteration to the torque vectoring model and VD model.

Removal of tire learning due to not track course will never force the tires to perform at its limit.

The simulink model comprises of yaw and slip controllers, torque distribution, driver input and vehicle dynamics. This model was previously designed by an alumni and was passed down the the controls teams to make improvements, validate or verify the torque distribution C language software code. 

Current progress involved in integrating I2PRO Motec sensory data in replacement of the driver input block shown below then synchronizing the data to work with the simulink models.