Wednesday 2 September 2009

It has finally come to an end!

It is time to conclude this project.
The development of the Roadie is a huge project. There are still some things to do to complete the prototype and produce it.

The work we did is the first step of the project: building the prototype of the vehicle. Yet, it turns out to be one of the most critical stages as it contains the overall design of the car and has a key function in the validation of the performances in real conditions.
The prototype manufacturing has not been finished yet, but the most difficult part has been done. Indeed, the suspension, the chassis and the plug for the body are completed.

For the body, the design and the shaping have been finished. The remaining work to do is the building of the mould and the production of the body strictly speaking.

For the chassis, it is quite finished, but some more small non structural parts need to be added. A series of tests in real environment would check the strength calculation and validate the behavior of the structure in front of several different situations.

For the cycle part, the prototype is ready to be experimented. Some modifications may be useful according to the results of these tests.

The design of the propulsion part has also been made but we ran out of time for the wiring between the controller, the engine and the batteries.
Nevertheless, there is still a lot of work to be done, especially on the inside furnishing: seats mounting, dashboard, ergonomics of the car and its system... This work could be achieved in about 6 months by a team of trainees like us, which means the Roadie could see the light in mid 2010!

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