As the ITU ZES Solar Car Team, we have been producing Solar Cars and Autonomous Vehicles for 20 years in order to represent Istanbul Technical University and Turkey in the best way in national and international competitions.
Since 2004, our team, which has achieved success by using sustainable energy and new generation technologies, continues to work with determination in line with its new goals.
One of the most important goals we have set for 2025 is to participate in the Shell Eco-Marathon Autonomous Urban Concept race, in which we took part in the Autonomous Programming Concept race last year, with our ARIBA Autonomous II vehicle!
Shell Eco-marathon
Shell Eco-marathon, one of the world's top engineering competitions on energy efficiency, provides young people with the opportunity to present energy solutions and encourages them to become the best scientists and engineers of the future. High school and university teams use their science, technology, engineering and math skills to build their own ultra-energy-efficient cars and compete in races with various concepts.
Concepts are categorized as regional races, programming races and urban challenges. Teams are expected to determine which of the vehicle and energy class categories they will compete in.
Vehicle Categories
· Urban Concept: Vehicles with known road vehicle characteristics
· Prototype: Ultra-efficient, lightweight vehicles
Energy Classes
· Internal Combustion Engine (gasoline, diesel or ethanol)
· Battery Electric
· Hydrogen Fuel Cell
ARIBA Autonomous II
Shell Eco-marathon Autonomous Urban Concept Competition 2025
Our team aims to participate in the Autonomous Urban Concept competition, scheduled to take place on June 10-12, 2025 at the Silesia Ring race track in Kamien Slaski, Poland. In this classification, participants are required to complete three components in the competition: autonomous driving, energy efficiency and a business presentation.
Preparations Has Started!
According to the required vehicle specifications published for the 2025 races of the Shell Eco-Marathon Autonomous Urban Concept competition, our team has started to work on our existing Autonomous II vehicle by planning various regulations.
Some of the technical groups that made changes to our vehicle are mechanics, power systems and autonomous group. Let's take a closer look at these changes!
1-The mechanical group is working on adding a roll-bar made of steel or aluminum to protect the driver in the event of an accident, and a quad braking system that can be used by the pilot and the computer system. Also, the steering system, which previously could only be operated by the computer, is now being updated so that the driver can also operate it.
2-Our Power Systems group has started modification work on the production of a new battery with an energy capacity of 1 kWh at 60 volts for our autonomous vehicle. In addition to battery production, we are also working on a completely indigenous engine driver project to control the motor's take-off techniques, speed, torque and regenerative braking systems.
3- Our Autonomous group, which is our engineering team making regulations on our vehicle for another Shell Eco-marathon race, continues to work on the autonomous braking system, a new simulation system and a longitudinal speed controller. It also plans to develop a localization system, add an encoder and develop a lidar camera that can precisely measure the distance to signposts.
Detection of the points where the signs coincide on the map.
As ITU ZES Solar Car Team, we will continue our work without slowing down in order to add a new one to our great successes we have achieved in the past and to represent our country and our school in the best way possible in the Shell Eco-marathon race. Stay tuned!
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