Chinook
Founded in 2009, Chinook ÉTS is a student-led club dedicated to designing and building high-performance wind-powered vehicles. Bringing together engineering students from various disciplines, the team continuously innovates in aerodynamics, power transmission, and energy efficiency. With a strong focus on sustainability, Chinook ÉTS pushes the boundaries of clean energy transportation through cutting-edge design and engineering.
As part of the Chinook ÉTS team, I led the design, development, and integration of a custom embedded steering wheel for the team’s wind-powered vehicle. This project encompassed PCB design, firmware development, real-time processing, and system integration, ensuring seamless communication with the vehicle’s main controller.
The steering wheel served as the vehicle’s primary control interface, integrating multiple buttons, an IPS TFT display, and a robust communication system. Using Altium Designer, I developed a custom PCB that housed the necessary electronic components, optimizing layout, signal integrity, and power efficiency.
On the software side, I developed the firmware in C and C++ for an STM32U5 microcontroller, utilizing FreeRTOS to handle real-time operations efficiently. The system communicated with the vehicle’s main controller via FD-CAN, ensuring high-speed, reliable data exchange. The IPS TFT screen was controlled via UART, with the GUI designed in TouchGFX, providing a clear and intuitive interface for the driver.
To ensure real-time responsiveness, I used interrupts and flags to manage button inputs and screen updates efficiently, reducing latency and optimizing system performance. The project required extensive debugging and validation, using tools like oscilloscopes and logic analyzers to verify signal integrity and timing accuracy.
System integration was a key challenge, requiring collaboration across electrical, mechanical, and software engineering disciplines to ensure seamless functionality. The final design provided precise control, reliable communication, and an intuitive interface, contributing to the overall performance of the wind-powered vehicle.
This project strengthened my expertise in embedded C/C++ programming, real-time operating systems (RTOS), FD-CAN communication, PCB design, microcontroller development, GUI design with TouchGFX, and system integration. It was an opportunity to apply hardware-software co-design principles while contributing to the innovation of sustainable wind-powered transportation.
