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DeepDrive

May 2023 — Today Topics: motor control, embedded systems, functional testing, software development

Overview

As a software engineer I work across multiple topics: integration of our technology in our own and customer vehicles, motor control testing and verification, and development of internal tools to support software development and testing.

Main Projects & Contributions

Design and verification of a novel rotor position sensor (patent pending)

For my master's thesis, I worked on a novel rotor position sensor for our dual-rotor technology, based on the direct measurement of the axial rotor flux.

Main Benefits:

  • Off-axis angle measurement capabilities.
  • Requires only one part (the sensor element) with no need for a target.
Tesla Model 3 conversion with DeepDrive in-wheel motors

Built the LV harness as well and software to make the vehicle run reliably and safely with our in-wheel motors.

  • Bring-up and track-side testing of the vehicle with a tight time schedule due to customer appointments
  • Implementation of a basic LV harness for routing of the necessary CAN buses, implementation of a safety shutdown button, and supply and control of an external parking brake actuator
  • Built software to translate vehicle inputs (accelerator pedal, brake pedal) into motor commands
  • Implemented basic safety features, like power limiting and speed limiting
  • Got the ABS of the vehicle working with our in-wheel motors, which have a different bearing and could not fit the ABS sensor of the vehicle
  • Vehicle was successfully presented to various customers as well as press, so far driven 5k+ km without any breakdowns
  • Representation of the DeepDrive dual-rotor to engineers, journalists and managers at various automotive OEMs both in the car and outside of the car
  • Setup of current and voltage measurement for WLTP measurements using a Yokogawa power analyzer
  • Implementation of a python based GUI to enable a driver to follow the WLTP speed profile life while driving
Tesla Model 3 with in-wheel motors
Application support for inverter software during end of line testing

As the only software engineer responsible for the in-wheel motor for several months, I was responsible for getting 6 fully functional drive units (motor + inverter) out the door to customers in time.

  • Support of test bench operators whenever issues arose during end of line testing (failure analysis, finding software fixes, involving the right people for fixing issues)
  • Working with external test bench operators to set up testing of our machines at their facilities, explaining to them how our software works, and ensuring proper execution of test procedures for the first samples
Tesla Model 3 with in-wheel motors