about us

about us

Team Introduction

Beijing Institute of Technology Formula Student Driverless Team (BITFSD) was established in September 2015. The team’s workshop is located in the Engineering Training Center of the Liangxiang Campus of Beijing Institute of Technology, Fangshan District, Beijing. Currently, there are more than 100 undergraduate and postgraduate students from different schools of our university. It is a scientific and technological innovation team that is guided by various innovation and entrepreneurship competitions such as the “Formula Student China” and aims at the forefront of high – end driverless vehicle technologies.

The team independently designs and develops a brand – new driverless formula racing car – the “Smart Shark” series every season. It has key technologies such as environmental perception, positioning and navigation, independent drive, and parallel – type wire – controlled chassis. The team takes Formula Student Autonomous China as the main competition project and flexibly participates in other competitions and social activities.

In 2016, our team released the world’s first formula student driverless racing car – Smart Shark Pre, which received widespread attention from society. In 2017, as the only Asian team, the team participated in Formula Student German with the new car “Smart Shark I”. Subsequently, it promoted and participated in the first Formula Student Autonomous China Competition and won the overall championship by sweeping the first place in each individual event. In 2018, the team successfully defended its title, and in the 2019 season, it won the runner – up. In the 2020, 2021, and 2022 seasons, the team won three consecutive championships, which is the first time that a university in China has achieved three consecutive championships in this event, setting a historical record. In the 2023 season, the team’s first four – motor, four – wheel – drive driverless car, Smart Shark VII, participated in the competition and ranked fifth in the national total score. In the 2024 season, the team won the first place in the racing car design individual event and the fifth place in the national total score.

Against the backdrop of the continuous improvement and maturity of driverless technology, in the face of the ever – changing and upgrading application requirements of driverless technology, the team will continue to uphold the concept of innovation and continuous exploration. Focusing on driving safety and reliability, it will enhance the power and handling performance of the “Smart Shark” series of racing cars, and continuously innovate and upgrade from the design concept to the processing technology, striving to get closer to the track – level driverless goal of “ultimate performance, stable control, and reliable driving”.

Team Structure

The team is affiliated with the School of Mechanical Engineering of Beijing Institute of Technology. Its members come from different schools of our university and are composed of four technical groups and one operation group.

Mechanical Group

The Mechanical Group is mainly responsible for the design of the mechanical structure of the racing car, the modification of the wire – controlled chassis, and the vehicle assembly. It has several subsystems: suspension, braking, steering, aerodynamic kit, transmission, and final assembly. The Mechanical Group is committed to achieving the close cooperation within the suspension, steering, braking and other systems and with other systems of the racing car, enabling the racing car to have excellent handling and stability. At the same time, it ensures the adaptability of the systems and the convenience of assembly and tuning.

Mechanical Structure Design

The mechanical structure is the skeleton of the racing car. All the vehicle systems need to be built on the chassis. Guided by the cutting – edge driverless vehicle technology and based on the competition rules, the Mechanical Group uses engineering software such as CATIA and ANSYS to design and optimize the mechanical structures of subsystems such as suspension, braking, and steering. By coordinating these subsystems, the dynamic performance and stability of the racing car are improved.

Wire - Controlled Chassis Modification

A driverless formula racing car is not only a formula racing car but also a driverless vehicle. Therefore, to achieve the driverless function, it needs to cooperate with various sensors and driverless systems. Another task of the Mechanical Group is to provide a reliable mechanical underlying structure for the driverless system, and modify the traditional chassis system for driverless operation, so that the vehicle can be driven not only by a driver but also by a program.

Vehicle Assembly

After designing the mechanical structures of the entire vehicle, the Mechanical Group will assemble the designed components. You will verify and assemble your own designs by hand, and you will get in touch with various tools and learn a lot of engineering practical experience. This process will improve your hands – on ability and teamwork ability and cultivate your engineering and systematic thinking.

Electric Drive Group

The Electric Drive Group is mainly responsible for manufacturing and debugging the drive system of the racing car, that is, high – voltage batteries, motors, and high – voltage wiring harnesses. Our work includes manufacturing the power battery box of the racing car to provide power for the motors of the racing car; designing the layout of the vehicle’s high – current circuit to transmit high – power energy safely and reliably; debugging the motors and the supporting motor controllers to make them respond quickly to the instructions of the electronic control system and drive the racing car to run.

Power Battery

The power battery is the power source for the racing car to move forward. Its safety, reliability, and weight are directly related to the electrical safety and power performance of the racing car. In the process of manufacturing the battery, you will need to use drawing software such as AutoCAD and CATIA to design the structure of each part of the battery box; use simulation software such as ANSYS for simulation to prove that the strength and heat dissipation of the battery meet the requirements; learn to use carbon fiber materials to manufacture a lightweight and strong battery box; carefully select each component and take insulation measures to withstand the test of high – voltage and high – current conditions.

Battery Management System (BMS)

The power battery is composed of more than a hundred cells connected in series and parallel. Any abnormality of a single cell poses a great risk. The BMS monitors their voltage and temperature in real – time and discharges the cells with excessive voltage. At the same time, the BMS is also responsible for connecting the power output of the battery to the outside and cutting off the high – voltage connection with the vehicle in case of danger. Here, you can use software such as Altium Designer and Keil, comprehensively apply PCB design knowledge and single – chip microcomputer development knowledge, develop a reliable and safe monitoring system for the power battery, and conduct actual welding, manufacturing, and debugging. You can also learn the battery electrical characteristic modeling method, conduct mathematical modeling and identification in Matlab, and finally import it into the BMS to calculate the important parameters of the battery.

Vehicle High - Voltage Wiring Harness and Motor

Our racing car adopts independent drive of four in – wheel motors, and each of the four motors is equipped with a motor controller. High – voltage cables that can withstand high currents transmit energy between the battery, motors, and motor controllers. You will learn to use the 3D wiring harness function in EPLAN to arrange the routing of high – voltage cables and design the structures of various high – voltage accessories. You will actually arrange the high – voltage cables and accessories, take insulation and electromagnetic shielding measures to ensure the electrical safety of the entire vehicle. At the same time, you will also learn to use the upper – computer to debug the dynamic parameters of the motor controller to ensure that the motor outputs power reliably and sensitively.

Electric Control Group

The electrical system is the blood vessels and nerves of the racing car. Through wiring harnesses, non – programmable logic circuits, and electronic control units, it communicates closely with the driverless system, power system, and mechanical system to fully tap the potential of the racing car.

Wiring Harness Design

The wiring harness is the blood vessel of the racing car, carrying the power of the vehicle and transmitting the information of the entire vehicle. Cables connect each part of the racing car into an organic whole. In the theoretical design stage of wiring harness design, you will use CAD, Catia, and professional electrical software to model the 2D and 3D layouts of the racing car wiring harness. In the practical stage, you will arrange the wiring harness on the pegboard diagram and finally conduct on – vehicle debugging. In this process, you will master the use of various electrical tools and various connectors and terminals in the automotive industry, and get to know the prototype of the vehicle electrical system architecture.

Circuit Design

The work of circuit design includes non – programmable logic circuit design and single – chip microcomputer development. The circuit design part ensures the functions of racing car fault detection, status display, and human – machine interaction. In the process of circuit design, you will learn and proficiently use software such as Altium Designer (professional PCB design software), Multisim (circuit simulation software), Keil, and CubeIDE (embedded development software). In the process of circuit design, you will also solder the surface – mount circuit board by yourself and conduct functional tests, mastering the skills of good hardware circuit design and debugging.

Development of Underlying Control Strategy

The development of the underlying control strategy is mainly responsible for the communication between sensors and the control system, the calculation of upper – level commands, and the development of vehicle dynamics control strategies. In the process of developing the control strategy, you will learn theoretical knowledge such as vehicle dynamics, classical control theory, and modern control theory. By deeply learning Matlab and Simulink, you will conduct vehicle dynamics simulations and implement control algorithms on this simulation platform. At the same time, you will also learn the basic content of modern communication protocols, understand and master the communication methods of each sub – device and subsystem of the racing car. These underlying control programs of the racing car will finally be implemented in the ECU (Electronic Control Unit). And in this development process, you will also have the rare opportunity to conduct debugging on the real vehicle and understand the basic process of industrial product debugging.

Driverless System Group

The Driverless System Group is mainly responsible for the algorithm development of the driverless system, which replaces the role of the driver on the race track and serves as a bridge from an electric racing car to a driverless racing car. We write the software architecture through the ROS system (Robot Operating System) and develop it using languages such as C++ and Python. We integrate the data of various sensors and plan the route to control the racing car to move forward.

Environmental Perception

Perception is the process in which the vehicle receives environmental data in real – time through sensors distributed throughout the vehicle and builds a map, including the processing of radar point clouds, the target detection of binocular cameras, the positioning of cones, etc. This is the key to the entire system and the basis for the operation of subsequent programs. The perception module will involve knowledge related to hardware driver writing, joint calibration, and deep learning.

State Estimation

The design of state estimation aims at stability and accuracy. Therefore, laser SLAM and RTK GPS are used simultaneously for state estimation. Through the extended Kalman filter designed in the form of a plug – in, any number of sensor data can be fused to obtain a highly robust and high – frequency estimation. The laser SLAM of Smart Shark IV adopts the LeGo – LOAM algorithm. Compared with the traditional LOAM method used before, LeGo – LOAM greatly reduces the calculation delay by pre – processing such as ground segmentation.

Path Planning

Based on the perception program, the system can obtain the map of the race track and the current position and status information in real – time. The planning program is responsible for planning the paths of the three race events: straight – line, figure – of – eight, and tracing. This includes finding the track boundaries and matching the second – lap track, which involves algorithm knowledge such as search trees and pruning.

Dynamics Control

After obtaining the track and path information, the system uses the controller to manipulate the driverless racing car to track the path. This is the key to scoring in the competition. The stability and efficiency of the control program determine the maximum speed at which the racing car can travel. In this process, the MPC (Model Predictive Control) algorithm and related mathematical knowledge are involved.

Simulation

Simulation is the process of simulating the operation of the vehicle model of the real car in a virtual environment through a computer. It is a necessary verification step after each set of programs is written. In the simulation, we can visualize a lot of data, such as the gorgeous point cloud distribution and the reference path issued by the control program. Simulation can verify the operation efficiency and robustness of the program and avoid unexpected problems during real – vehicle testing.

Operation Group

The Operation Group is mainly responsible for the management and publicity of the team. It promotes the team’s brand and culture through various platforms and collaborates with the technical departments to complete the body painting design and peripheral product development. Here, you will be able to bring your creative ideas into reality to the greatest extent.

Team Image Building

Network platform construction mainly includes the operation of Weibo, WeChat official accounts, websites, and the liaison and material supply of other publicity media on campus. Production and planning of publicity materials include daily work highlights, track – side shooting, etc. Design of peripheral products and body painting is carried out around team work, campus activities, and exchanges with other teams.

Public Relations Planning

Financial Statistics and Reimbursement

about us