Solar race heats up

UNSW’s Sunswift solar racing team is in the middle of a gruelling battle against the best in the world, as it competes in a global solar car challenge from Darwin to Adelaide.

The race, which began on Sunday morning, involves some of the top solar and eco-friendly vehicles from around the globe. The Sunswift’s entry, known as the IVy, is one of 42 solar race teams from 21 countries making the 3000km trek.

In January this year, the IVy smashed the Guinness World Record to become the world’s fastest solar vehicle, a major achievement for car designed and built by UNSW engineering students.

And for the first time, race fans have the chance to ‘virtually’ sit in the cockpit of the IVy during the Global Solar Challenge. Cutting-edge satellite technology is providing online, real-time updates on the team’s progress, including photos, tweets and detailed technical information.

Sunswift project manager Daniel Friedman says race fans have been crying out for more information on how the IVy progresses during the Challenge. So the team set out to devise a way to place fans in the cockpit.

“In the outback, 3G and WiFi are almost non-existent, as you can imagine, so it was quite a technical challenge to design a system that could allow our fans to feel like they were part of the race,” Friedman says. “Thus, Sunswift Live was born. Since February this year the team’s been working on the infrastructure to provide real time data right into the web browsers of anyone interested in the race.”

The team will send real-time data back to Sydney via a server hosted by OrionVM, who are providing the bandwidth for the Sunswift Live service. The data will be transmitted by a satellite link provided by Addcom Contact Solutions, which can still transfer information even if the car hits 100km/h! Race-watchers will then see all the data through a user interface designed by Lavender, a Sydney-based ad agency.

It’s anticipated the IVy will reach Adelaide by Friday.

Click here to see the view from the cockpit and track the Sunswift IVy’s progress.

Race fans can also follow the Sunswift team on Twitter: @sunswift

Provided by University of New South Wales