Module 2: Rules and Project Definition

This module sucks and I'm sorry, but it is the most important step in the process. The fun stuff will come soon I promise 😊. Please make a new section in your document entitled Brake Pedal Research. This marks the beginning of your Introductory Project!

Functional Requirements

When designing the car, we always need to think about the objectives for our designs. As mentioned before, your first project is to design a brake pedal. Before you design the brake pedal, you need to think about exactly what a brake pedal does functionally, and why we have one.

Project Deliverable: Write down what you think the brake pedal is and why it is important. This may seem like a simple exercise, but try to think about the mechanics of a brake pedal, and what alternatives could exist but aren’t used. This will inform your thoughts on what the function of the pedal is. (Hint: Google how hydraulic braking systems work)

Rules Requirements

Our goal first and foremost is to pass technical inspection at our two competitions. We cannot score points in any dynamic events if we do not pass technical inspection.

To pass technical inspection at our competitions, we need to first ensure that our car adheres to the regulations put out by each respective competition. We go to two different competitions and thus have two similar but slightly different rulesets we have to follow.

The short and sweet of it is that the rules are painful to navigate, especially given there are two rulesets to check. As you spend more time on the team, you will become intimately familiar with the rules, but for now, we are going to teach you to sift through the rules. Open the most recent versions both the FSAE and Formula Hybrid Rules (2025).

FSAE Electric - Michigan International Speedway (Brooklyn MI)

Competition Website:

Rules and Series Documents:

Formula Hybrid and Electric - New Hampshire Motor Speedway (Loudon, NH)

Competition Website:

Rules:

Series Documents:

To find rules that pertain to your system, the first step is to check the table of contents for anything that may relate to your system. For the Brake Pedal, we are going to look for the section labeled brakes.

Project Deliverable: Search for rules regarding the Brake Pedal Design and Location. Write down the force value that the pedal needs to withstand without failure from both FSAE and FORMULA HYBRID

CTRL F is a great way to find what you need, but be careful, it can often times miss rules that apply to the system, but don’t mention it by name!

There are other rules that don't directly mention the Brake Pedal or Pedal Box, as is the case with many other systems on the car, however we will not worry about those for the sake of this project. Please feel free to explore the rules more to get yourselves comfortable, as you will need to use them again quite soon.

Concepting

The next step in the process is to explore what other teams have done for their cars design, and more specifically in this case, brake pedals. This is a key step in understanding how to build the lightest car possible. Teams will come up with many other ideas that we may not have thought of, and while copying a design bolt for bolt is not in the spirit of the competition, gaining inspiration from other designs is a great way to inform our process.

When you are doing research for any given project, it is imperative to check with multiple people to ensure that no rule is being missed or misinterpreted. Not only this, but you may be missing concepting ideas that you may not have thought of.

To ensure that our understanding of the rules and function of the system is correct, we perform research reviews for each system before we actually start design. This is the purpose of the page you are now creating.