The new “muc022” acts even more autonomously thanks to ETO

Friday, 15 July 2022 08:45

The TUfast Team is made up of students from the Technical University of Munich who have been developing autonomously driving, highly efficient electric vehicles since 2015. The ETO GRUPPE was already one of the cooperation partners of the team in its ambitious “muc019+“ project. We support the students not only financially, but also with technical components and expertise from our plant in Nuremberg for the further development of “muc022”.  

Efficiency improvements with regard to electro mobility and autonomous driving are currently on the agenda of many university projects. One such project is the TUfast Eco Team at the Technical University of Munich. TU students have been working for years on developing autonomous, fuel-efficient electric vehicles. In 2016, the TUfast Eco Team succeeded in setting a world record in the “Most Efficient Electric Vehicle“ category, which was even included in the Guinness Book of Records. Their e-vehicle covered an incredible 10,957 kilometers with an energy equivalent of just one liter of gasoline.
The TUfast Eco Team worked with the utmost commitment on the “muc022”, the further development of its e-vehicle, and has already taken part in initial competitions such as the “Shell Eco-marathon” in the Netherlands in the “Urban Concept” class. In this category, vehicles compete that are designed for urban driving, i.e. similar to normal passenger cars. They must therefore meet certain specifications in terms of roadworthiness, driver comfort and space for luggage. The objective for the participating teams is to design a highly energy-efficient vehicle that covers a certain distance using as little energy as possible.
Compared with its predecessor, the lightweight prototype “muc022” has been aerodynamically optimized. For example, by reducing the width of the cockpit, a two-seater became a single-seater configuration. In the area of electrical engineering, changes were made to further increase driving efficiency. The chassis and the unit responsible for autonomous driving were also improved. To determine positions more accurately, the students also implemented a system called Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM). In combination with LiDAR sensors to detect the distance to objects, this prepared the “muc022” for the slalom and track challenge of the “Shell Eco-marathon”.
With its new prototype, the innovative student team aims above all to raise awareness of the possibilities and importance of “green” mobility. With the vehicle muc019+, TUfast was one of the big attractions at our ETO Family Day on 2022-07-02 on the occasion of our 30th location anniversary in Stockach.