Newswise — EAST LANSING, Mich. – This July, the United States Army announced a new $9 million initiative it’s pursuing with Michigan State University to make electric autonomous vehicles safer, smarter and more dependable.
With support from the Army’s Ground Vehicle Systems Center, or GVSC, Spartan engineers are working to create every advantage they can for vehicles that will serve our country’s service members. But it doesn’t take long to see how these innovations will benefit civilians, too.
In fact, the team will first demonstrate its new ideas, designs and technologies on a commercially available passenger car before disseminating these advances to other vehicles.
For today’s average driver, perhaps the biggest problem MSU’s researchers are working to solve is related to range anxiety, the fear that electric vehicles, or EVs, will run out of charge before reaching their destination.
“If you were to ask 10 electric vehicle owners what is the single biggest issue they have with their car, I would bet eight out of 10 would say range anxiety,” says Satish Udpa, a University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Udpa is a leader of the GVSC project and an EV owner. He’s been impressed with how well his vehicle keeps him informed of his charge level and nearby charging stations, but it doesn’t fully alleviate the stress.
“If I have to go to Chicago, I’m still going to worry about where to charge,” he says. “There’s a level of anxiety that you don’t associate with vehicles powered by internal combustion engines.”
And range anxiety doesn’t just affect current drivers. According to industry surveys, it’s the top barrier outside of cost for consumers considering the switch to EVs, even as manufacturers and the government are working to accelerate that transition.
Although there are a lot of companies working on solutions to range anxiety, Udpa says they’re dealing with different parts of the problem separately.
Some companies are developing better batteries, for example. Others are focused on improving other onboard systems or making lighter-weight materials to stretch more range out of a single charge. That makes it challenging, if not outright risky, for automakers to attempt to bring multiple solutions to a single vehicle.
“When you build solutions in silos, sometimes the parts don’t fit together,” says Judd Herzer, who became the director of MSU Mobility in August. “By having the ability to do it all at Michigan State, we believe we can solve problems differently and solve them better.”
There are more than a dozen Spartan faculty collaborating on this project to explore and drive innovations in battery chemistry, electrical systems, the materials that make a car and more.
Spartan graduate and undergraduate students will also play a critical role in the projects, helping develop these advances and determining how to implement them on real vehicles.
“The most impactful outcome of this work is the development of the nation’s future workforce, which is going to ensure the state’s and nation’s competitiveness and leadership for generations to come,” says Mahmood Haq, another leader of the GVSC grant and an associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
“We’ve chosen to look at the issue in its totality. We’re considering all aspects,” says Udpa. “An orchestra works together by relying on everyone in different sections doing their jobs. That’s the approach we’re taking here.”
The resulting symphony will be a fully autonomous, fully electric and lightweight all-terrain vehicle. Although it’s commissioned by the GVSC, it’s designed to be an inspiring listen for many audiences: drivers, students and other MSU partners and stakeholders, including the U.S. auto industry.
It’s a composition that’s somehow both avant-garde and classical. It’s as much a new realization of Spartan potential as it is a reminder of who we are.
“MSU has a certain type of culture and a certain type of ambition to be the best at this,” Herzer says. “There are a lot of other areas we could focus on, but we recognize how critical mobility is to Michigan’s — and the nation’s — economic future.”
“Translating technologies to the marketplace is part of our DNA,” Udpa says. “That’s been the case since 1855, and it will continue to be the case.”
By Matt Davenport
Read on MSUToday.
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