A DISTRIBUTED, LOW-POWER TELEMETRY SYSTEM FOR SOLAR RACE CAR APPLICATIONS

Abstract

This student paper was produced as part of the team design competition in the University of Arizona course ECE 485, Radiowaves and Telemetry. It describes the design of a telemetry system for the University of Arizona’s Daedalus solar car. This is a distributed, low-power, telemetry-on-demand system that solves many of the problems typically encountered in this specialized telemetry application. The topology of the distributed microcontroller system is shown, as are optimal command and data packet structures. Also featured is a high-gain, low profile antenna system designed specifically for the solar car. Additionally, a customized chase car operator interface is illustrated.