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VDS GROEP T organises the second networking event on Wednesday February 18 in Leuven at 20h00. Main topics for this evening are the presentation of our plans for the future and a sneak preview of the VISION GT prototype. As a premium partner you will be the first to receive the most recent news and updates on the VDS project. On the agenda:

• 20h10 Patricia Ceysens - Flemish minister of Economy, International trade, Science and Innovation
• Arthur D’Huys - general manager of GROEP T
• Arthur Vijghen - VDS GROEP T Team leader: VDS GROEP T Reloaded
• Core partner - VDS GROEP T partnership
• Pieter Roels - VDS GROEP T Project manager: VISION GT Preview
• 21h30 Reception

The event takes place on campus Vesalius at GROEP T (A. Vesaliusstraat 13, Leuven, Belgium). You’re welcome to park your car free of charge on-site (access via the Dekenstraat side entrance).

Continue to the networking event page.

VDS GROEP T launched its first online newsletter. The team will publish four newsletter per annual. Each team briefly discusses the state of affairs, we provide a list of new partners, and a calendar of upcoming events. You can follow one of these links to download the newsletter of Q4/2008:

VDS GROEP T Newsletter Q4/2008 (low-res PDF, 1,53 MB)

VDS GROEP T Newsletter Q4/2008 (high-res PDF, 5,00 MB)

This month, Eric Van Gelder, a recent graduate from the University of California, Davis, joined us to share his expertise. He is currently traveling around the world having just been to Uganda and preparing for more adventures in Asia. At UC Davis, Eric got a master's degree in mechanical engineering and developed a prototype super efficient commuter vehicle, the Pedal Electric Tricycle (PET) Project. He also worked for a year at the Institute of Transportation Studies as a researcher developing energy use of models of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.

Here at GROEP T Eric has been specifying and sourcing the battery pack for the VISION GT. The advanced lithium iron phospate pack will weigh less than 200 kg and will be able to propell the vehicle more than 100 km per charge and to a total of more than 200000 km over its lifetime. Eric will continue to work with us after he leaves via his laptop, modeling the VISION GT in Imagine.Lab, vehicle modeling software from LMS, to perfect the powertrain design and devleop a controlls system before building it.

The VISION GT is a plug-in electric 5-door cross-over vehicle, based on the VISION 200 design. Our engineers mainly focus on the core business sub-systems: the design, development and production of a lightweight frame, high-efficient electric motor and the motor controller. The integration of these three essential parts will be combined with a substantial number of sub-systems from a donor vehicle: the VISION GT integrates the mechanical drive train, suspension, interior, steering and several electronic control units. The battery pack, drive train architecture and body panels will be co-developed by partner companies.

The VISION GT, the second VISION prototype, is going to show VDS GROEP T’s engineering qualities. Both interior and exterior will be functional in the first place, because of the technical/scientific approach. Similarly, the overall ergonomics and comfort of the end-user are considered less important. Nevertheless, we consider the safety and comfort of the driver a key objective, due to the planned endurance tests.

With respect to the VDS VISION, the VISION GT will be a 100% electric vehicle – not a hybrid. It can also board five adult people, instead of six.

Mid summer of 2008, VDS produced the first VISION prototype in the Turin, Italy. Based on this experience, VDS GROEP T now develops a second prototype, the VISION GT. It will be assembled in spring 2009. The prototype will effectively be used for drive tests and endurance tests. The VISION GT will be a VDS GROEP T car: it will show the lightweight frame, electric motor and motor controller to the maximum. The power train, power steering, suspension and braking systems will be incorporated from another existing car. Our researchers won’t focus on these integration components; the innovative sub systems have our priority.

This academic year, the frame team will focus on composites in particular. They want to develop and build a 100% carbon composite frame. Our researchers also explore the possibilities of flax fibres, because they have an impressive low life cycle impact – which is the de facto target of VDS GROEP T. The frame will be produced in cooperation with several industrial partners.

The motor team finished the design of the PMSM motor in September 2008. This motor is obviously controller by the PMSM controller, which will be finished in Q2 2009. The production of the Switched Reluctance Motor is scheduled in Q1 2009. The VISION GT will be driven by a 30 KW SRM motor. The SRM motor has significantly better results in the life cycle analysis, compared to all other electric motors. Next to a cheap, fast and environment friendly production, it has a very high efficiency while in use.

The motor controller team will focus on two specific domains: the hardware implementation of the PMSM controller algorithm – both controller and high power electronics – and the first develop cycle of the SRM algorithm. In Q2 2009 VDS GROEP T will show their PMSM controller, and a first version of the SRM algorithm.

Leuven September 22 2008 – Vehicle Design Summit (VDS), the very first university knowledge network for the automobile industry, launched the VISION's first prototype in Turin. The VISION 200 is presented at the prestigious DREAM Expo at the Museo Nazionale dell'Automobile in Turin, Italy, until the end of November. The expo selected 50 cars of the future to be showcased at the Museo Nazionale dell'Automobile. The car stands side to side with famous classic cars of Bertone, Ferrari and Maserati.

The 200 is the first prototype in a line of cars to be expected over the coming years. The final version, a hybrid plug-in car weighing less than 600 kilograms, has an energy-equivalent of 1.2l/100km and a 20%-reduction in lifecycle costs compared to current standards.

VDS is an international project for which Group T collaborates with major international universities such as M.I.T. (US), Harvard University (US), TU Delft (The Netherlands) and Tsinghua University (China) to develop the car of the future. VDS GROEP T plays a key role in the project as it takes care of the frame, the electrical engine, and the motor controller.

Here in Belgium everybody is in holiday, but that doesn't stop the frame team at all! These day's, Stijn is very busy with defining the design space of the final design we just got from Studio Indigo Delft. Stijn has a lot of work on it because the CAD model changes when converting it from one cad-system to another, even if we use standard formats. Now Stijn can make a solid so that Jan and Pieter can optimize a frame out of this solid using Altair HyperWorks?. They already optimized a test design in the past with this software, and now they are already finding solutions, and different approaches for difficulties they had with an older draft of the final design. HyperWorks? is very powerful, but complicated. The possibilities are endless. Meanwhile, Thijs made a mathematical equitation which allows you to find the maximum weight of the frame regarding life cycle costs of different materials. Next week some professors will evaluate the calculations, and it will be useful in the future to evaluate the different outcomes of the optimization cycle's for all the possible materials. He is also working constantly on communication, with the other teams (skype, wiki, ...) and writing some reports.

The lull before the storm. At the moment, all VDS GROUP T Members are studying themselves to death. Still, no one is 100% focussed: the VDS Europe Design Review is coming up.

On January 23, not even a day after their final exam, the frame team and I will travel to sunny Milano, to stay there for over three weeks. Objective: define and build the first Vision mock-ups. The frame team will start with defining the design space. Simply said, Thijs, Pieter, Jan and Stijn will define the location of each component by placing it into a 1-day-built frame. Next, they will build a first generation prototype (or mock-up) of the frame, based on the results of the design space frame and based on the concept art drawings of the VDS TU Delft Team.

All other Design Review participants will split up into four teams. Managed by the VDS Org Team, advised by leading industry advisors, four automotive mock-up designs will be built: the eMotion, the Safety, the India and the China. I will take care of on-site coverage, making our partners visible to the world and supporting the frame team in all possible ways. The motorteam won't participate in the Design Review. These days they are putting all their effort in the design of the electrical motor and controller.

We would like to thank all our partners in advance. We would like to thank Makita in special, for delivering their professional high-end power tools. The frame team will need every possible power tool to build their frame properly. We also want to thank our distribution partner Mols, for using a Ford Galaxy car and a Mercedes Sprinter truck. Powered by Mols trucks, we're more confident than ever, to engage the VDS challenge!

From November 1 till November 7, a delegation of our team (Arthur, Stijn and Jan) went to India to visit the design review in the Delhi College of Engineering. We gathered there with the teams of Delft, Milan and Delhi to determine the scenario and the context of the VDS car. Anna Jaffe, one of the founders of VDS, was also present. She told us a lot about the organisation of VDS.

During our stay we had a lot of meetings and we went into the centre of Delhi to observe the traffic. There we also tried all different kinds of public transport. That was definitely a special experience. We took an RTV (Rural Transport Vehicle), the subway, a bus, a rickshaw and an auto-rickshaw. We evaluated them all and gave our results to the team of Delft. They combined these with the results of a survey they took from the locals to determine the concept: a 4-person car according to the European Standard of Safety.
The car will have to be a little bit narrower for a better manoeuvrability in the Indian traffic. It will also be a kind of modular car, so it can be used for different purposes.
In the meantime, Milan also worked out a scenario. They thought of the idea of Car Sharing: one car will be used by multiple persons, so the total number of cars will be less.
To end our trip to India, we went to Agra. There we visited the Taj Mahal, one of the 7 world wonders, and the Agra Fortress. After this exhausting day, we returned to Belgium with a lot of new and useful information.

Thanks to this meeting in Delhi, a lot considering VDS became a lot clearer and we now have a general idea about the scenario and the context. All this will be further developed on the Critical Design Review next week here in Leuven. There will also be some general sketches provided by the team of TU Delft.

See you all at the CDR in Leuven!

Monday November 22, the Vehicle Frame team visited the TU Delft colleague team. They're responsible for the scenario and the styling of the VDS Vision. Objectives: getting to know each other and to discuss the future of this project.

We left Leuven at 7:00 am with 5 men (the Frame Team and Arthur) to Delft. After a smooth ride of 2 hours, we arrived at the Industrial Design department at the large campus of our neighbours. The first contact was very spontaneous. After this, we brought each other up to date about our current performances. This also brought us to some questions, which we've tried to solve together.

We came to the conclusion that we have to take initiative ourselves for obtaining a good communication. We realize we have to take a coordinating role upon us to help all the teams of VDS with the exchange of information and questions. If we do this, we will have to set up a good contact between the different parts of the car. The VDS GROUPT T Team will try to create a structural cooperation between the teams of the VDS Chassis Group and TU Delft will try to be central in the communication of the VDS Body Group.

As Group T and Delft aren't that far apart from each other, it is less complex to get in touch with each other in person, so it will be easier to discuss the evolution of the project in the near future.