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T2 proves a winner in Global Challenge
When Ford wanted to design a Model T for the
21st Century, to which Australian university did it turn?
Deakin University’s revolutionary entry in to the Ford
Global Challenge to design a Model T for the 21st Century
has proven a world-class winner.
On October 1, the 100th anniversary of the first Model T,
Ford announced from Detroit that Deakin’s entry, along
with one from Aachen University in Germany, would be “showcased”.
Deakin was the only Australian university invited to take
part in a challenge that featured six universities from around
the world.
The successful Deakin entry, put together by students from
across a wide range of disciplines within the university,
was called T2.
The entry from Deakin was described by Ford as: “pushing
the boundaries and delivering an alternative transportation
concept for tomorrow.”
The win earned Deakin’s School of Engineering and Information
Technology $30,000 in scholarship funds from Ford.
Deakin University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sally
Walker, congratulated the Deakin students and said that the
win demonstrated how Deakin’s research is both innovative
and relevant to the real world.
“This is a fantastic example of the capabilities and
talents of Deakin’s students and the staff who support
them; their collaborative efforts, under deadline pressure,
produced a wonderful outcome that may influence the design
of future vehicles. Our team more than met the Ford challenge
to create an innovative vehicle concept for the future,”
she said.
Dr Bernard Rolfe, the Deakin Project Leader, said that T2’s
use of the latest research and technology has re-defined the
idea of an inexpensive, innovative and sustainable car.
“Our design, developed by a cross-disciplinary
team effort from across the University, has ‘plenty
of bang for the buck’. As well, T2 is a very
green machine,” Dr Rolfe said.
Ford called the design “simple, lightweight, practical,
compelling and low cost.”
Deakin University’s car runs on compressed air (with
some compressed natural gas support for longer distance travel).
It incorporates safety proven lightweight materials in which
Deakin is an acknowledged world leader.
With three wheels, it can turn 360° on itself, making
inner city parking easy. The simplicity of the design means
that it can be assembled at accredited Ford dealers, which
was the original business model used by Ford Australia back
in the early 1920s when the Model T was first launched in
Australia.
The key design points include:
- High torque compressed air wheel hub motors to reduce vehicle
emissions to zero, depending on the distance option chosen
- Differential wheel speeds to steer the car via hub motors
– so the car doesn’t need a conventional gearbox,
driveline and steering rack-pinion systems
- Utilising the wheel hub motor concept with only three wheels
to increase agility and reduce costs and weight
- Use of Ultra High Strength Steels and novel manufacturing
methods to increase strength, while reducing costs and weight
- A flexible, easily adaptable human-machine interface to
keep the vehicle competitive for at least a decade of advances
in software technology
Dr Rolfe said that there were many infrastructure related
advantages of using compressed air.
“Compressed air requires less change to current infrastructure
than other alternate sources,” he said.
“For example, hydrogen would require a large change
to petrol stations and existing infrastructure to accommodate
this new power source.”
Deakin University was the only Australian university and one
of only six worldwide invited to participate in the Challenge,
part of the celebrations for the 100th anniversary of the
fabled Model T, the car that changed the 20th Century. In
Australia the Model T was launched in 1927 and was first manufactured
in Geelong on a site adjacent to Deakin’s headquarters
at the Waterfront Campus.
The new Model T design aims to be universally affordable and
could, if produced, retail for under A$9,000. Ford has registered
several patents around the concept vehicles.
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