University of Toronto Human Powered Vehicle: Difference between revisions

The University of Toronto Human Powered Vehicle Design Team (HPVDT) is a design team focused around designing and building vehicles solely propelled by human power. The team's past and current projects include an ornithopter, a helicopter, an airplane, a submarine, as well as numerous land vehicles.

==Human Powered Ornithopter (2008)==

<span></span><span>During the summer of 2008 a group of graduate students founded the club to design and buildan</span>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ornithopter ornithopter] (wing-flapping aircraft) that used human power alone. The project was headed by Todd Reichert (NΨ 0T4 + Film) and Cameron Robertson (NΨ 0T8). The ornithopter was successfully completed and made a record setting flight as the first human powered ornithopter.[[File:131216175956-areovelo-ornithopter-story-top.jpg|400px|center|middle|thumb|Morning flight of the first-ever human-powered ornithopter.]]

The team built and competed with ACE. The team competed at the ASME Human Powered Vehicle Challenge and at Battle Mountain's Human Powered Speed Challenge. ACE's top speed was approximately 100 km/h. The team scored second in both men and women sprint events, as well as third place overall in the Speed Class at the ASME event, a great performance for a new team. Furthermore, the team scored the collegiate speed record at the Battle Mountain event, with a 103km/h run. This was the first year undergraduate students were a part of the team. ACE used an aluminum frame supported in a fairing constructed from Kevlar and carbon fibre. It's total length was approximately 9 ft.

[[File:Ace.jpg|500px|center|middle|thumb|The ACE speedbike]]<a class="image"><img alt="" src="/w/images/thumb/0/0f/Ace.jpg/500px-Ace.jpg" decoding="async" width="500" height="328" class="thumbimage" srcset="/w/images/thumb/0/0f/Ace.jpg/750px-Ace.jpg 1.5x, /w/images/0/0f/Ace.jpg 2x"></a>  <a class="internal" title="Enlarge"></a>The ACE speedbike

==Vortex (2010 - 2011)==

In September of 2011 the team competed in the Battle Mountain WHPSC again, this time in hopes of setting a world speed record. After a week of racing the team marked a top speed of 116.9 km/h by Todd Reichert, still well short of the world record.

==Bluenose (2011 - 2012)==

HPVDT significantly redesigned all aspects of the design  for the next iteration of speedbike. Led by co-captains Trefor Evans (NΨ 1T3) and Aidan Muller (MSE 1T3), the team proceeded to manufacture the Bluenose vehicle. This design boasted much-improved aerodynamics, highly-durable construction, revised steering geometry, and a new landing gear system.Bluenose competed at the 2012 ASME HPVC, where it won awards in the Design and Sprint events. The team finished 4th overall.

[[File:Bluenose2012.JPG|500px]]<a class="image"><img alt="Bluenose2012.JPG" src="/w/images/thumb/f/f0/Bluenose2012.JPG/500px-Bluenose2012.JPG" decoding="async" width="500" height="375" srcset="/w/images/thumb/f/f0/Bluenose2012.JPG/750px-Bluenose2012.JPG 1.5x, /w/images/thumb/f/f0/Bluenose2012.JPG/1000px-Bluenose2012.JPG 2x"></a>

Despite mediocre performance in the Design and Innovation categories, Celero placed well in both the Sprint and Endurance races. In fact, the Endurance race was won by an unusually-large margin; Celero finished the 2.5 hour event having covered nearly 20% more distance than the next-fastest vehicle. Overall, HPVDT finished 3rd in this competition. Shortly after this event, Calvin Moes (NΨ 1T3+PEY) was elected as the new Team Captain. Long may he rule!

==World Human-Powered Speed Challange 2013 and collaboration with Aerovelo==

[[File:Valkyrie.jpg|500px|the Valkyrie leaning tricycle at ASME HPVC 2014]]<a class="image" title="the Valkyrie leaning tricycle at ASME HPVC 2014"><img alt="the Valkyrie leaning tricycle at ASME HPVC 2014" src="/w/images/thumb/5/5f/Valkyrie.jpg/500px-Valkyrie.jpg" decoding="async" width="500" height="319" srcset="/w/images/5/5f/Valkyrie.jpg 1.5x"></a><br />[[File:etaCatch.jpg|500px|The Eta speedbike at WHPSC 2014]]

The 2015 ASME competition was a mixed experience. The new Viteza design proved less versatile than expected, and the suspension system introduced unanticipated instabilities. Regardless, the team scored well in Innovation and won 1st place in the Design event.

[[File:Viteza.jpg|500px|Viteza at ASME HPVC 2015]]<a class="image" title="Viteza at ASME HPVC 2015"><img alt="Viteza at ASME HPVC 2015" src="/w/images/thumb/8/8c/Viteza.jpg/500px-Viteza.jpg" decoding="async" width="500" height="308" srcset="/w/images/thumb/8/8c/Viteza.jpg/750px-Viteza.jpg 1.5x, /w/images/thumb/8/8c/Viteza.jpg/1000px-Viteza.jpg 2x"></a><br />[[File:Eta Prime Outer Shell.JPG|500px]]

Through the summer, work on Eta prime was completed and the team raced it for the first time at WHPSC 2016. At the same event, former team founder Todd Reichert set a new absolute world record of 144.17 km/h (89.59 mi/h) in Eta.  

* [http://hpo.ornithopter.net Human Powered Ornithopter Project]