A low-cost inertia dynamometer for EV manufacturers and universities — power and torque mapping at the wheel, with a complete custom data-acquisition suite built in-house. Mechanical design, software and commissioning all delivered by one team.
Project planning covered objectives, milestones, budget, supplier confirmation, task assignment and risk mitigation. CAD followed: frame weldments, modal analysis for stiffening, bearing selection for dynamic roller loads, shaft tolerancing, and detail drawings for laser cutting, welding and powder coating. The software track ran in parallel — GUI layout in Qt Designer, C++ backend for sensor acquisition, serial communication protocols, then stress testing for real-time data handling.
The DAQ suite grew to cover acceleration, de-acceleration, coast-down, brake, regenerative braking, back-EMF, speedometer calibration, gradient and Indian Drive Cycle tests — each with live plotting and exportable data.
At certain roller speeds, in-frame vibration produced noise and dropouts in the speed sensor signal. Modal analysis identified the modes; the fix combined frame stiffening with a dedicated vibration-damped sensor mounting plate. Clean data across the full speed range.
Nobody on the team had built a Qt C++ application before. The skill gap was identified in planning and budgeted as learning time rather than discovered as a crisis. The GUI shipped on schedule and became a selling point of the product.
A manufacturer (Shindengen), and two universities (Manipal, RV College) had different vehicles, test interests and operator skill levels. The wheelbase range, test-mode breadth and simple UI were all driven by serving these in one design.
Commissioned at Shindengen Electronics, Manipal University and RV College of Engineering. Used for production diagnostics and EV research and teaching. Upgrade path to powered chassis dyno designed in from day one.
