Eich, F. (2016):

Bidirectional CAN bus telemetry on a Formula Student / SAE car

In professional motorsports, live telemetry systems have long been the state of technology. In Formula 1, cars have been sending data to the pits since the late 80s, with continuous data transmission starting in the early 90s. Bidirectional telemetry was permitted for a few years but banned in 2003. Thus, commercial systems do not usually implement it, at the expense of customers who might want to make use of it, like Formula SAE/Student teams. Other drawbacks of commercial solutions include their high prices and their lack of openness which results in a severe lack in adaptability.

In this Bachelor's thesis, the feasibility of a bidirectional telemetry system is demonstrated for a Formula SAE/Student car. The possibility of communicating with the commercial control units through CAN bus is created, as well as adaptable interfaces for data acquisition and telemetry. The resulting system is then evaluated through testing.

The methods chosen are largely rooted in a Systems Engineering context, with guidelines by the IEEE and several different RFCs providing the framework for the proceedings. As a result, a clear specification of the system requirements is provided. The system design and the following implementation is then executed accordingly, resulting in a system prototype which is then measured against the specified requirements.

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