An innovative electric go-kart that breaks records
On May 13 and 14, the University of Montpellier took part for the first time in its history in the national "Mobelim" challenge for electrically-powered karts developed by vocational and higher education establishments, on the Limoges indoor track. The "Gream Rocket" team from the Institut d'Électronique et des Systèmes (IES) beat the track record several times, winning almost all the stages.
An electric go-kart like no other
Entirely developed within the EEA (electronics, electrical engineering and automation) teaching department of the Faculty of Science, with the support of IES, the teachers and students of the EEA master's program were heavily involved in both the design and management.
They took a discarded rental kart and built an all-electric "racehorse". The motorization was calculated and sized to match the track's layout, i.e. a propulsion system with limited top speed but optimized dynamics to gain in recovery and braking. The installed electrical power is five times greater than that of a conventional kart, since electronic modules for real-time and remote monitoring have also been developed to ensure driver safety, as in Formula 1 racing.
Mechanical engineering, on-board electronics, electric motorization, electrical energy storage management, telecoms and signal processing: all the skills of the EEA Masters and IES researchers were called upon to guarantee the success of this innovative kart, which has won almost every race and broken every record.