Mission Statement
The University of Utah Mini Baja 2007–2008 team views senior design as an integral part in a young engineer’s career. It is their mission to utilize sound engineering practices, such as team work, communication, record keeping and sustainable design to develop efficient, safe and effective vehicles. Each team member strives to be a positive role model in society and as such behave in a professional manner. The team believes by behaving as role model to the youth and a competent engineer in society as well as in competition they will obtain an outstanding status among the community. As representatives of the University of Utah College of engineering in an SAE competition it is their duty to create a precedence amongst engineers world wide and create a demand for Utah graduates.
SAE Mini-Baja
SAE, the Society of Automotive Engineers, sponsors multiple vehicle design competitions across the world. The competitions split up into aircraft, watercraft, street vehicles and off-road vehicles. SAE Mini-Baja is the off-road branch of these competitions and has been one of the largest senior design projects at the University of Utah for over 20 years. For all years, thus far, the competitions have comprised of designing a single-seated off-road vehicle capable of surmounting obstacles of all terrain types through varying weather conditions. The University of Utah has shown a history of constructing well rounded vehicles that place well at these competitions.
2007–2008 Competition
Hosted by Tennessee Tech University
(water event)
May 1–3, 2008 in
Cookeville, Tennessee, USA
3400 miles round trip from Salt lake City, Utah, USA
Team Structure and Goals
As with all iterative design processes, this year’s team is approaching the competition with ideas not previously explored. The team is split into four sub-teams responsible for designing the chassis, suspension, power train, and ancillary systems. Chassis is responsible for all structural designs on the cars frame including interfacing with other systems. Suspension is responsible complete design of shock absorption and steering of the vehicle. Power Train is responsible for the engine and transmission designs responsible for propulsion. Ancillary systems include all systems not covered in the three major systems including, brakes, electrical, paneling, and flotation.
The goals for this year’s redesign are to improve maneuverability through suspension and braking and create a more reliable CVT transmission controller. Each sub-team is responsible for a ground up redesign of a major portion of their subsystem to meet these goals.
Computational Analysis Models
- Chassis: FEA of Stresses
The Chassis team has made a complete solid model of the competition chassis for use with Finite Elements Analysis of stress. This Analysis will determine if the chassis can sustain impacts expected with an off-road race (such as flipping or jumping).
- Suspension: Camber, Toe, Bump-Steer Optimization
The team has taken measurements from the 2005 car for use as a benchmark for a complete redesign of the suspension system. Using Adams-Car, a program provided by the university, the camber and toe can be modified to reduce unwanted characteristics while maximizing desired suspension and steering characteristics.
Prototype Analysis Mock-Ups
- Power Train: Micro Controller to Control CVT
Previous years have incorporated a micro controlled CVT design with limited success. The main drawbacks in the past have been that the micro controller has not been sufficiently programmed to deal with the varying conditions that occur in a race, leading to limited reliability. For further information regarding the microcontroller and toroidal transmission see the Microcontroller CFP.
- Ancillary: Tri-Pedal Cutter Brake Assembly
The ancillary team’s focus has been on improving on the cutter braking system of previous years. Most implementations of cutter brakes require a larger foot box to house additional pedals or require the driver to remove their hands from the wheel to utilize a lever cutter braking system. The ancillary team researched building a cutter brake system that fit into a single pedal foot box avoiding both the need for a larger foot box and the draw-backs of a hand-brake system. For further information see the Cutter Brake CFP.
- Ancillary: Flotation
New to this year’s Mini-Baja design is the amphibious aspect added by the competition in Tennessee. This amphibious aspect will be taken into account in both the design of the new 2007–2008 project car as well as in the retrofit of the 2006–2007 project car. Further information can be found in the Prototype Retrofit of the 2006–2007 project car.
Community Awareness
It was immediately apparent to the team lead, Taylor Halford, that if the Mini-Baja SAE project did not get more recognition from the community it would shortly be disbanded from the College of Engineering. As socially responsible aspiring engineers the Mini-Baja team endeavors to prevent this. The University of Utah the Mini-Baja team developed, voluntarily, a community outreach program to this end. The team approached schools and motocross organizations about setting up informational booths at their events simply to expand the awareness of the project throughout the Salt Lake valley. This improved public awareness of the project has led to better sponsorship opportunities for the team.
Improved community consideration has led the Mini-Baja team to be a featured project in a documentary of the design process sponsored by the College of Engineering at the University of Utah.
Fundraising
A foremost concern with the Mini-Baja project has been the projected costs associated with prototyping and building a competitive off-road vehicle. Most design projects are fairly cheap by comparison to the Mini-Baja and as such their budgets remain low such that student lab fees can cover a greater portion of the total project budget. Mini-Baja be its sheer larger size alone demands a huge bill of materials and thus a larger budget is required. While most projects can be completed with less than $2,000 the Mini-Baja budget can reach as high as $10,000. As such aggressive fund raising is required.
- ASUU and SAC at the University
Funding provided by the University of Utah is not limited to ME 4000 lab fees alone which for this year’s team totaled $1,100. Senior Design groups can petition the ASUU finance board once per year in the fall for funds or submit a bill to the ASUU Senate or ASUU Assembly once each month. The SAC can be petitioned as well in a similar manner. While the fund ceiling from these organizations is limited to $5,000 a group such as Mini-Baja is lucky to get $1,000. For 2007–2008 the ASUU provided $600 to support the Mini-Baja team. This, combined with student lab fees, still leaves quite a large margin between projected costs and available funds.
- Corporate Sponsorship
Since the University can only provided a limited amount of aid the responsibility to raise the bulk of the funds lies with the Mini-Baja team members. Team members were immediately encouraged by the team lead, Taylor Halford, to approach their current or previous employment about donations. Willing companies were then shown a presentation showcasing the efforts of previous years’ teams in hopes that they would contribute a significant amount to offset the mounting costs. For this year the most significant donors were ES3 and L3 Communications. Each company donated $9,200 and $3,000 respectively which covering all projected costs associated with the Mini-Baja Project for 2007–2008.
Final Construction
Final contruction of the 2008 project car begin in mid-January and went straight through until competition day at the beginning of May. The team had numerous setbacks originating in a long design cycle all the way through to the actual construction of the Mini-Baja. Specifically, chassis design was meant to be completed at the end of October so construction could begin at the beginning of December and the chassis was supposed to be completely welded by mid-January. In actuallity, with the design only being finallized in late January, welding of the chassis went clear until the beginning of April.
The retrofit of the 2007 project car went clear until the beginning of April also tying up resources that could speed up the construction of the 2008 project car.