Human Powered Vehicle

 

CSU has competed successfully in this competition for the last 8 years, placing in the top three in the western division.  Success has been achieved through innovative designs, iterative virtual prototyping, and the combined knowledge accumulated over many generations of HPV projects.  Interest in human powered vehicle technology is rapidly advancing due to issues such as global warming, overpopulation, and the drive to be more environmentally conscious.

The American Society of Mechanical Engineer sponsored human powered vehicle competition began in 2002.  The competition is broken into three classifications: speed, utility, and multi-rider/tandem.  Speed entails building a human powered vehicle, usually fully enclosed, that is designed to sprint a set distance in the least amount of time.  The utility competition, which is the classification that CSU has competed in for the last eight years, is devised towards building a vehicle that is meant for everyday activities such as commuting to work, shopping trips, and general transportation.  In order to have a successful utility vehicle designs should incorporate an ergonomic design with storage compartments and a safety cage including a restraining harness.  Finally the multi-rider classification is for vehicles that may transport and be powered by multiple riders.

Vehicles are judged on design, safety, and performance.  These aspects are evaluated in three stages; a comprehensive design report, a design presentation, and the actual performance in the event.  The utility event is a challenging grand prix style course including simulated weather, speed bumps, slalom, and other real world themed obstacles. Points are accumulated, and then factored into the final standings, through various design aspects such as safety and sound engineering principals along with times recorded during performance evaluations. 

 

Goals

• Place top three within the utility, design and overall  competitions                             
• Reduce weight from ’08-’09 design
• Improve torsional stability of bottom bracket/crank-set
• Improve steering set-up to reduce speed wobble
• Integrate a redesigned lightweight overhead fairing
• Improve Egress/Ingress from ’08-’09 design

Criteria

• Integrate Industry Standard Metric Hardware
• Achieve minimum top speed of 25 mph (~40kph)
• Integrate auto-opening with self-latching fairing
• Design for visibility to traffic (i.e. bright flag)
• Integrate an easily accessible cargo area
• Allow for rider adjustability
• Design for a 4 inch minimum ground clearance

 

If you wish to donate to this year’s HPV team, please visit our donation page at https://advancing.colostate.edu/HUMANPOWEREDVEHICLE. Your tax deductible donation will help support the material and manufacturing costs of the vehicle and your company logo can be displayed on the fairing of the vehicle.