Self driving race car - 2009

Self-driving race car is an event that takes place every year Vietnam. In this day, the fastest car from different University will race with each other to find the winner.

In 2012, our robot club joined this event. Therefore, this time they asked me to help them design the car's body for the race. Furthermore, this car design would also be used as a commercial product.

I would say, during the time I was developing this car. I have learned one thing that I think it important for me. It is about focusing on the key matters of your design. In this case, the key concerns are speed and the reliability. At first, I didn't know about this. I spent most of the time to focus on the appearance of the car and forgot about the critical matters. And of course, my first design had been denied by our leader.

At the second design, I made my goal clearly. I redesigned the entire car again with lighter material. I tried to utilize available parts from the market so that it would be easier for manufacturing and maintaining. I also will remove some unnecessary parts to make it lighter and simplify the design, so it would be easier to make. The final product needs to be light weight, easy for manufacturing and low cost but has to be strong enough for several impacts, collisions during the race.

Easier said than done. It took me more time and effort than I thought before. To have a product like below, It took us for several weeks with a second design, third design, and many designs later. However, I am very happy with what I contribute.