Unibo Motorsport: 15 Years of Hybrid and Electric Innovation

Blog by Unibo Motorsport

Unibo Motorsport, the racing team of the University of Bologna, is engaged in designing two Formula SAE prototypes: one electric and one hybrid. Established in 2009, this year marks the team’s 15th anniversary, and they aim to make it special by transitioning their old combustion prototype into a hybrid variant. Simultaneously, they plan to participate in three different competitions across Europe with their electric vehicle: Formula Student Austria, Formula Student Spain, and Formula Student Italy. The primary goal is to ensure the vehicle is competitive and reliable, and Eurocircuits provides significant support to this ambitious endeavor.

BMSC

The Battery Management System Controller (BMSC) is the most critical board inside our vehicle. Located inside the battery container, it aims to monitor and control every aspect of the battery: it coordinates the communication with the BMSs, handles the connection/disconnection of the battery from the vehicle, and communicates with the ECU to receive commands and send diagnostic data.

BMS

The Battery Management System boards cooperate with the BMSC to measure all the voltages and temperatures of the single cells inside the battery. They acquire the data directly from the five segments (one BMS for each segment) and they send them to the BMSC using ISO-SPI communication in a daisy-chain configuration. This year’s design will comply with the updated rulebook measuring more cells per segment and will have a more reliable IC.

BSPD

The Brake System Plausibility Device (BSPD) is a crucial part of the shutdown circuit and will turn off the power of the car if both the brake and accelerator are pressed for security reasons. This year’s design will comply with the rulebook and will have updates for increasing the reliability of the sensor acquisition.

Fusebox

The new version of our fusebox, which contains all the low voltage fuses of the vehicle, will add a microcontroller that monitors the state of each fuse, as well as the total current consumed by the system.

Acquisition box

The acquisition box is a board that acquires analog signals that come from any sensor inside the vehicle (accelerator, brake pressure, dampers, steering, etc.) and sends them to the ECU using CAN protocol, reducing the complexity of the wiring, the noise of the signals and increasing reliability.

Busbars Fastening

There will be two boards responsible for securing the High Voltage power Busbars: one for the positive HV part and the other for the negative HV part. Both utilize Wurth’s pressfit technology to anchor the busbars to the board. This allows us to comply with the provided regulations while also having a convenient and functional system for routine maintenance.