Michelin Challenge Design-CCS 2014 winning projects explored

Michelin has revealed the winners of the 2014 Michelin Challenge Design Competition for the College for Creative Studies (CCS).

This year's challenge saw 16 student entries based around the global Michelin Challenge Design theme of ‘Driven/Undriven: The Duality of Tomorrow's Automobile'. Michelin asked the students to explore innovative concepts of vehicle autonomy in teams of four.

Each student then developed a vehicle whose design maintains the link between driver and car despite involving a lower level of driver interaction compared with today's vehicles. They also had to create a tire/wheel assembly with a unique, functional design.

Byungwan Kang was awarded first place with his lightweight, fully electric ‘Bike Ride Recon Vehicle'. This concept, when not being ridden, can reconnoiter the terrain ahead collecting information on things such as road conditions and landscape. This is then translated into visual and auditory information transmitted to headgear or eyewear. Routes can also be mapped out and shared on social media.

Its tires are inspired by those on bicycles, with two sides to each rubber block at the end of the spoke. One is smooth and thin like on a road bike, while the other has extruding threads like a mountain bike's tire. This means it could be used effectively on both paved and dirt roads.

Dongsung Choi's ‘Desert Strider' took second place. This is a rescue vehicle designed to cope with the surge in popularity of desert sports. GPS coordinates from stranded or injured people are received by the vehicles, which then travel to rendezvous with them.

The tire's outer surface is made of D-3O gel to protect the vehicle and passengers against rugged terrain while movable spikes separated from the tire surface improve traction. These work on sand, rock, in mud or in the rain as well as on normal roads. Extended wheel spokes function as assistant off-road spikes. Sea animals' flippers were the inspiration for the tire's movable spikes.

In third place was Austin Cox's ‘Quick Response Vehicle (QRV)' - an adaptable concept designed to offer maximum reliability in the period after a natural disaster. It features an asymmetrical design comprising a collapsible driver's compartment, removable aid containers and a cargo bed on one side featuring built-in stretchers.

On the opposite side, a partially covered bench allows for the quick transportation of relief workers or victims. The driver's compartment can be collapsed when not in use to create more space for items such as aid containers, spare wheels and batteries.

The vehicles are designed to autonomously deliver aid and personnel, request specific items from vehicles around it and support specific areas where more help is needed. This system aims to deliver non-stop reliable service to the affected area, working alongside off-site aid collection sites, hospitals and charging stations.

Cox's wheel design adopts the military's rail gun technology, where projectiles are launched electromagnetically with zero moving parts and zero combustion, into a two-hub system that essentially launches an outer hub and tire around a stationary inner hub with regulated pulses of electric current.

There is no need to implement a heavy electric motor or conventional powertrain, and no energy is lost through transmissions and gearing, maximizing efficiency. Modularity also plays a role in the wheel assembly. If the system were to fail while the vehicle is in service, a simple wheel swap would resolve all problems without disassembly.

Both Kang and Cox were part of the winning team, along with Jae Chun Cho and Geum Wook Lee. Modularity was the team's overall theme, and they designed a chassis composed primarily of a structural spine, with multiple detachable battery packs running the length on both sides, extendable powertrain subframes on both ends and a rail system on the top to mount a variety of vehicle bodies and suspension systems.

The battery packs, which together can be used as the primary power source to drive the vehicle, are small enough to be accessed, serviced, or removed by one person, and they can also power auxiliary components specific to each vehicle in the group.

The subframes on either side are extendable and can be fitted with whatever supplemental powertrain component necessary, from extra battery space to internal combustion generators and fuel tanks. Suspension components will be unique to each vehicle in the group, offering an individual ride height and wheelbase.

The winners' work will join 15 designs, representing nine countries selected in the global Michelin Challenge Design competition, at next week's North American International Auto Show (NAIAS).

Thom Roach, vice-president of original equipment marketing, Michelin North and South America, said, "We challenged CCS students to take on a topic of significant importance in the industry, vehicle autonomy. It's exciting to see the creativity and enthusiasm these future designers have as they work to develop innovative ideas and solutions that incorporate new design and vehicle functions to deliver truly autonomous vehicles."

This year's judging panel were all former CCS Michelin Design competition winners: Michael Smith, senior automotive designer, Ford; John Norman, principal designer/Acura interior styling manager, Honda R&D America; and Addam Ebel, senior designer, General Motors.

By Rufus Thompson