Thanks to years of persistent work, the SZEnergy Team has reached the top: for the third time in a row since 2022, the team has won the energy-efficiency race of the Shell Eco-marathon European race in the Urban Concept category, and on all three occasions with world records, winning the trophy for the self-driving car category in the last two years. The team is not resting on its laurels, however, and is constantly improving its car to defend their title next year.

The SZEnergy Team recently held its annual "design freeze", a major event in the life of any engineering design team, as it marks the end of the design phase and the start of the production phase. Between these two phases of the annual vehicle development cycle, the team presents the development directions for the current year to partners, sponsors, invited guests and the press - and 2024 is no different.

The "design freeze" event took place at the Management Campus of Széchenyi István University (Photo: András Adorján)

"Looking at the results of the last few years, the team could have eased up, because even if they hadn't touched the 2022 car, they would have won the race with a confident lead. However, the SZEnergy Team never stopped improving, striving for better every year, and in addition to winning the title, they managed to continuously improve their results and create a more and more professional car. Constant innovation and the will to improve is the secret of success. This winning mentality must be carried forward into the future," said Dr Gábor Dogossy, Dean of the Audi Hungaria Faculty of Vehicle Engineering, in his welcoming speech.

Team leader Balázs Für immediately revealed the challenge the team will face this time: the combined European and African rounds of the Shell Eco-Marathon in 2025 will be held on the Silesia Ring in Poland instead of the well-known Nogaro circuit in France. This is interesting because the team members prepare for each race with a driving dynamics simulation, calculating how the vehicle must be operated at all points on the track to achieve optimum performance. So far, they have been able to refine this based on their race experience, which will now only be possible on the spot. However, the team leader reassured everyone that the technology that has contributed so much to their success can still be used with a few modifications - the only change is that the simulations will have to be finalised when the track is surveyed.

The Silesia Ring, on the outskirts of Kamień Śląski in Poland, will host the 2025 Shell Eco-marathon Europe (Source: silesiaring.pl)

Balázs Für, team leader, summarised the results of 2024 and set the goal of defending the title for next season (Photo: András Adorján)

Balázs Für briefly presented the concept of the Shell Eco-Marathon, which will be held in prototype and urban concept categories and in three energy classes - internal combustion, electric and hydrogen cell. The SZEnergy Team will compete in the European region in the urban concept category, the aim of which is to cover the distance using as little energy as possible. In the self-driving competition, the driver simply monitors the system in the car, which has to perform various tasks (e.g. avoiding obstacles, parking) autonomously, without the intervention of the driver, while taking consumption into consideration as well.

The students from Győr improved their own world record significantly in the last season, finishing at the top of the field for the third time in a row with an energy-efficient figure of 309 km/kWh. This represents 309 kilometres travelled with the equivalent of roughly an hour's use of a hairdryer, 41 kilometres ahead of second-placed University of Toulouse. The SZEnergy Team also triumphed in the self-driving race for the second year in a row, beating prestigious institutions such as the Politecnico di Milano and the Technical University of Munich. The team is now aiming to win both titles again.

The highly successful SZEmission vehicle (Photo: Gergely Nagy)

"Last season, the car showed some unexpected faults, which we would like to correct. During the race, our ball bearings in the front suspension showed increased play, so we are replacing them with more durable parts. We are also rethinking our braking system and improving our electric dynamometer," said Dávid Sándor, Head of SZEnergy’s Engineering Department, who also said that they have already started thinking about the successor to the car, which has been improved year after year since 2019 and has been a success story. The first step is to run flow and strength simulations to establish the development directions. For the time being, however, this is the future, as the current SZEmission design has not yet reached its maximum potential - the world records of recent years show that the car still has a lot to offer.

A new, ergonomic steering wheel with a 3D printed frame is also in developement to make life more comfortable for the drivers, says Dávid Sándor, Head of SZEnergy’s Engineering Department (Photo: András Adorján)

As head of the Electronics Department András Timár announced that the entire wiring system of the car is being redesigned, because the design implemented in 2019 has been modified several times since then, creating a system that is difficult to understand. After the revision, the car will have a simpler, easier-to-install wiring system. In addition, a new mounting panel is being developed: instead of the current devices mounted on an aluminium plate, the power and signal wiring will be integrated on a printed circuit board, which will be easier to handle.

"In order to make the autonomous system more energy efficient, one of the two computing units currently used will be removed from the system. This is because the Jetson Xavier processor accounts for a quarter of the energy used in solving self-driving tasks, so we could save a significant amount of energy. We are also thinking about replacing our current LIDAR laser scanner with one that has a lower power consumption," adds András Timár.

As for the self-driving functions, the Head of the Department said that the Autonomous Department's biggest challenge at the moment is how to perform the computational tasks with a single computing unit and how to implement the algorithms currently used in the more advanced ROS2 operating system. In fact, as noted, there is also a trend towards solving the current route optimisation on a cloud basis, i.e. not having the unit in the car do the calculations, but just retrieving the data from an application running on a server - which of course carries risks due to possible communication disruption.

The aim is to improve the ease of installation and reduce fuel consumption, said András Timár, head of the electronics department (Photo: András Adorján)

Finally, Bíborka Bartha, Head of the Marketing and Management Department, pointed out that never before had the recruitment of members been so successful and never before had the team's communication reached so many people as it did this year. "We have generated fifteen thousand hits and added five hundred followers this year. Our highlight was the Shell Eco-marathon, when our social media activity peaked. Of course, we will not be bored next year either, we would like to further develop our website in particular, where we would like to create a partner programme tab to work even more successfully with our supporters. We are also preparing for the 20th anniversary of the team's creation, as we want to celebrate this occasion in a worthy way," she said.

Bíborka Bartha informed the participants about the results of the Marketing and Management Department (Photo: András Adorján)

The SZEnergy Team team with the three-time world record holder SZEmission vehicle (Photo: Gergely Nagy)

 

 

 

Gallery from the event (Photos: András Adorján, Gergely Nagy)