E-Assist Human Powered Vehicle
Problem statement
After COVID-19, UW-Madison’s e-HPVC team struggled with low membership and visibility on campus. Last year, Hunter and his senior design teammates introduced a radical redesign involving tilt steering, earning 1st overall, 1st in endurance, and 2nd in drag at the national ASME competition. Their success has revived the club’s momentum, and now it’s our job to build on it. To do this, we will refine the new design by focusing on key details that were overlooked during their comprehensive overhaul, namely, improving the approachability of the tilt system for new riders. This will allow the vehicle to be more accessible to the masses, for its intended use as a sustainable form of city transportation. The transportation sector contributes 28% of total domestic greenhouse gas emissions, with 57% of those emissions coming from light-duty vehicles [1]. E-assist human powered vehicles provide a sustainable alternative to conventional forms of transportation. If the barrier of entry to operating our vehicle is greatly reduced, e.g., with more intuitive control mechanisms, more people would elect to use it. The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee 2019 HPV design accomplishes this with a design aimed at mimicking a bicycle’s dynamics [2]. While this made the vehicle more intuitive, it decreased low speed stability and was not as competition focused. We hope to build a system that is both high performance and still easy to use for first time riders. By achieving this goal, we hope to carry on the legacy Hunter and his team started as we represent our university at this national competition.
Team members
Boden Bratberg – accountant
Elijah Bartlett – admin
Noah Brucker – communicator
William Mata – facilitator
Client
Hunter Kent
UW – Mechanical Engineering