The Design Process of a Wireless Data Transmission System Applied to a Formula SAE Vehicle

Data analysis is an important way to validate and optimize engineering's designs. With the development of wireless transmission systems, race cars use telemetry as a solution to measure the car's behavior by the analysis of acquired data. Wireless communication systems provide the possibility to analyze data in real-time situations, allowing tactical decision making based on the vehicle's embedded signals interpretation.

This paper intends to describe the design process of a wireless data transmission system applied to a Formula SAE vehicle. Based on the prototyping microcontroller Arduino™ and the radio-transmission module Xbee®, the wireless transmission system here described is capable of transmitting 16 analog and 54 digital embedded signals and can be easily adapted for the user's requirements, through the system's open-source characteristics.