MIE.36 – Electronic Throttle Control for Formula E Car

• Juan Cruz
• Ibrahim Isphahani
• Paul Jun
• Axel Mota
• Deep Shah Shah

The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) at UIC competes against other universities every year in a design competition in two specific categories, Baja and Formula. In 2020, the organization decided to start teams that will produce electrical versions of the Baja and Formula vehicles. In 2022, SAE began working on building the E-Baja and Formula E vehicles for competition. This project, assigned by the captain of the Formula E team, was aimed to build a fully functional Electronic Throttle Control (ETC) that can be incorporated with the pedals of the Formula E vehicle while meeting the FSAE rulebook regulations at the same time. The purpose of the ETC is to send the signal to the motor with different voltages depending on the different pressure and angle applied to the gas and brake pedals. By building an ETC, it would benefit the customer because it could be replicated in future design iterations of the Formula E vehicle. Using an electric controller module, a motor controller, and connecting to the motor directly were the three design alternatives when designing the main scheme of the ETC. The main function of all three alternatives were the same, but the method of how signals would be transmitted to the motor was the deciding factor to choose the best design alternative. In order to achieve results, codes were created and developed using an Arduino kit which would build the basic structure of the system. Tests using the kits’ potentiometer would be run until codes are working and then be replaced with Throttle Position Sensors (TPS). The final design met the requirements of the FSAE rulebook while also following a safe design to the customer’s satisfaction. The pedal assemblies allow for the body of the TPS to rotate which guarantees a valid reading to be found for the voltage output.