ASME Report Cover Page & Vehicle

Description Form
Human Powered Vehicle Challenge
http://go.asme.org/HPVC Competition Location: ​Cookeville, Tennessee
Competition Date: ​April 21, 2017

​ ​
This required document for all teams is to be incorporated into your Design & Innovation Reports.
Please Observe Your​ Due Dates; see the ASME HPVC for due dates.

Vehicle Description
School name: Missouri University of Science and Technology
Vehicle name: M-24 Chaffee
Vehicle number 24

Vehicle configuration
Upright ​no Semi-recumbent ​yes
Prone no Other (specify)
Frame material Steel
Fairing material(s) Carbon Fiber, Divinycell, Kevlar, Fiberglass

Number of wheels 3
​ ​
Vehicle Dimensions ​(please use m, m3, kg)
Length 2.667 m Width .84m
Height 1.15m ​ .985m
Wheelbase 0
Weight Distribution Front ​40% Rear ​60%
Total Weight ​75lbs
Wheel Size Front ​16” Rear 20”
Frontal area .454 m​2
Steering Front yes Rear ​no
Braking Front yes Rear ​no Both no
Estimated Cd .111

Vehicle history (e.g., has it competed before? where? when?) ​M-24 Chaffee has not competed
before.
 Human Powered Vehicle Design Team
Team Number: 24

Team Officers:
Ben Lassanske Greg Wilkins
President Chief Engineer
636-448-5667 573-308-7300
bhl284@mst.edu gwilkins@mst.edu
David Lujan – Fairing Engineer
Stephen Arant/Aaron Graham – Secretary
Alivia Dean – Treasurer
David Vong – Trainer
Deacon Seals – Innovation Engineer

Team Members:
Timothy Bills
AJ Flemming
Blake Kennedy
Emily Amerson
Corey Wiseman
Aaron Wiseman
Friedrich May
Kyle White
Thomas Korenak
Rachel Althage
Austin Brown

Faculty Advisor:
Dr. Daniel Stutts
573-341-4084
stutts@mst.edu

2017 ASME Human Powered Vehicle Challenge

Innovation Report
Design
In the consumer electronics industry, there has been a trend over the past several years to label
increasingly small and powerful personal computer platforms as replacements for their larger
form-factor versions. This has manifested into “desktop replacement” laptops, then “laptop
replacement” tablets, and will likely continue for a short time as electronics continue to
increase in computing density. We have decided to apply this principle of creating increasingly
efficient “replacements” to further the state of the human powered vehicle. Full fairing human
powered vehicles exist as an efficient and environmentally conscious solution to personal
transportation needs, but they often exist in a form that lacks features that general consumers
find attractive. Our innovation seeks to set the precedent that there might exist a “car
replacement” human powered vehicle. This is achieved by the implementation of our
Safety-Focused Asset Management system.

Our innovation, the Safety-Focused Asset Management (SAM) system, seeks to provide the
general consumer with features they would expect from a vehicle that costs several thousand
dollars and seeks to replace the traditional vehicle. Specifically, SAM offers automatic GPS
tracking, wireless locking, and automated crash detection and reporting. This functionality
enables SAM to address the need for increased anti-theft measures with such a valuable and
light weight vehicle while simultaneously promoting rider safety. To further promote the appeal
to the general consumer, SAM is implemented in a way that is sleek and unobtrusive to the
user.

GPS tracking, for example, uses a cellular connection to periodically send coordinates to cloud
storage when the HPV is in motion. The user may use login credentials to access this coordinate
data and see their HPV’s position and path plotted on a map. GPS tracking, in this instance, is
intended to serve as a solution to theft attempts that involve simply towing the lightweight
vehicle. The user may then provide this information to law enforcement, who may then pursue
the recovery of the HPV. The user may choose to activate and deactivate this functionality, but
by default GPS tracking operates without any intervention by the rider.

Wireless locking may also function as a security feature that operates without any required
intervention by the user. SAM uses Bluetooth Beacon technology to passively lock and unlock
the full fairing depending on the presence of a Bluetooth Low Energy device. This Bluetooth
Low Energy device may be a small key fob or a modern cell phone. SAM is also capable of
behaving with a more active approach to locking by simply toggling the broadcast of the
Bluetooth Beacon. Otherwise, the fairing will unlock when the rider approaches the HPV and
lock when the rider walks away.

SAM also provides passive rider protection through crash detection and reporting. SAM uses
accelerometer and gyroscope data to identify values outside of a “crash threshold.” The crash
threshold is found by collecting data from a series of rigorous maneuvers that push the HPV to
its operational limits. This data is then used to set thresholds for acceleration values in a plane
parallel to the ground and angular velocity about the natural leaning angle of the HPV. Crashes
may also be identified by lean angle, but this value doesn’t need to be identified via rigorous
maneuvers. Once a crash is detected, SAM uses the cellular connection to send GPS coordinates
to a cloud computing platform, which then sends the coordinates to a list of emergency
contacts via text message. Emergency contacts with modern cell phones may tap on the
coordinates to show the location in their prefered map/navigation app. The rider may also
press a panic button to manually trigger this same functionality with a special message.

While the functions of SAM described thus far are aimed specifically at the general consumer,
the combination of these functions yields tremendous enterprise potential. By utilizing the
cellular connection to remotely control what Bluetooth Beacons can unlock the fairing, SAM is
able to support a shareable transportation business model. The shareable transportation
business model popularized by Citi Bike [1] and Enterprise CarShare [2] promotes
environmentally conscious transportation and aligns with many of the core values behind the
ASME HPVC. This business model could exploit all of the features in SAM to provide an
automated rental experience that pleases customers while simultaneously enabling robust fleet
management.

SAM is composed of two consumer-grade microcontrollers with peripherals that are supported
and/or created by the creators of the microcontrollers. One microcontroller enables crash
detection and wireless locks. The other microcontroller is an IOT device that enables GPS
tracking and meets all of the system’s communication requirements via a cellular connection to
its native cloud platform. Due to the use of readily available hardware and their native
platforms, SAM is both feasible and practical. While most functions of SAM are easily assessed
as functioning, we did perform tests with the crash detection functionality.

Concept Evaluation
In order to establish threshold values and provide concept evaluation, a previous faired
recumbent leaning tricycle, Leviathan, was operated by the available rider with the highest
power output. The data received shows that this sensor configuration is appropriate to
measure the values needed to perform crash detection. Unfortunately, due to Leviathan’s
condition as a retired vehicle, the rider was unable to perform a number of the planned
rigorous maneuvers to reach the threshold of the vehicle’s performance. Regardless, this data
set is merely representative of the data set that will later be generated with this year’s vehicle,
M-24 Chaffee.

Table 1: Prototype Results

 Figure 1: Orientation of Axes of Importance

Learnings
After preliminary system testing followed by research, it was discovered that the bidirectional
carbon fiber weave we use for our fairing is highly effective at blocking high frequency signals.
This drastically reduced the effectiveness of our GPS and cellular data connection. To alleviate
this problem, we had to use external antennas mounted to a fiberglass patch on the fairing.
This blocking of high frequency signals will, however, help create more stable operation for the
wireless locks. Due to the blocking of Bluetooth signals, SAM will be less likely to sporadically
unlock the fairing due to bouncing RF signals. While sporadic lock behavior is alleviated, tuning
of acceptable read strengths will still be required.

In conclusion, SAM provides a unique combination of features that don’t currently exist within
the HPV environment. These features will generate appeal among general consumers and
enable the use of business models that promote the core values of the ASME HPVC. While the
crash detection and wireless locking functions benefit from continued data collection and
tuning, they should be able to sufficiently overcome the sporadic nature of the inputs they use.
In this way, SAM is able to sufficiently advance the art of HPVs.
References

[1] I.M. International, n.d., “CitiBike: NYC’s Official Bike Sharing System,” from
https://www.citibikenyc.com/

[2] Enterprise CarShare, n.d., “Enterprise CarShare - Hourly Car Rental and Car Sharing,” from
https://www.enterprisecarshare.com/us/en/home.html