This project is continually changing, being improved, and progressing toward the ultimate goal of having an operational hydraulic hybrid vehicle that is out driving the roads. A more recent and, often times, more updated status can be found in the Timeline section of the web page.
The Last Big Step
The new semester has started, with a new team, and hopes are high for this next year. The team currently has a truck and a test skid that are both equipped with hydraulic systems. Currently the bulk of the work has been done on the truck, in preparing it for driving and presentations.
Over the summer, the ECE HHV team worked on wiring the truck and optimizing the control system. The bugs are currently being worked out, and the hope is to have the truck drivable with a manual hydraulic hybrid system in the next week or two. Once this is completed, the task is then to gather data and make corrections where necessary. The hope is that by the end of the year, we will have an automated, operational truck that utilizes the hydraulic hybrid system to its fullest potential.
10/16/2008 - Right now it is all hands on deck to get Serial CAN communication working. Once that is operational we can begin to collect data, optimize code, and then automate everything.