The UCI Anteater Baja Racing team is a 30+ member team tasked with designing, building, and testing an off-road race car for the SAE Baja competition each year. We are a subset of the team working to design, fabricate, and validate a controllable driveline test bench (DTB) to experimentally evaluate driveshaft behavior under varying angles, loads, and rotational speeds. This project is to address a diagnostic platform for understanding driveline inefficiencies and enable future vehicle modifications to be made for the rest of the Anteater SAE team.
Competition/Extracurricular Project Sub-team
MAE
2025-2026
Winter
Spring
Anteater Baja Racing Driveline
Summary
Technical Approach/Methodology
The test bench shall control measurement of torque transmission, vibration, and angular velocity fluctuations across U joints. The results will directly inform driveline packaging decisions for Anteater Baja Racing’s next competition vehicle, Spectre, and address performance limitations observed in the current vehicle, Corsair. Our subsystems shall include: Angle Adjustment, Speed Control, Torque Measurement, and Vibration Measurement. The system is controlled using an Arduino Uno, which collects synchronized angle, speed, torque, and vibration data. This configuration allows for fine adjustment of driveshaft angle and fast reconfiguration. An adjustable pillow block bearing supports the free end of the driveshaft. An 1800W motor powers the driveshaft with controllable RPMs via the Arduino and a tachometer. A driveshaft-mounted strain gauge provides torque measurement, and a 3-axis accelerometer mounted to the stationary pillow block bearing provides vibration data. All data is timestamped and exported as CSV for post-processing and analysis.
Outcomes
The driveline test bench concept was successfully defined with measurable performance targets, including an adjustable driveshaft angle range of 0° to 10°, a controllable operating speed from 0 to 500 rpm, and planned measurement of torque, vibration, and speed behavior across the U-joints. A first-pass motor sizing calculation was completed to confirm the selected motor had adequate power margin at the expected torque and speed conditions, which validated that the performance goals were realistic. Additional deliverables include a fully functional test bench, validated operating limits, and driveline layout recommendations for Spectre.
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