DFI Facilitates DHBW Engineering to Achieve Third Place at Formula Student Germany with a Focus on Autonomous Driving

TAIPEI, TAIWAN 12 October 2023 – DFI, the global leader in embedded motherboards and industrial computers, recently sponsored the DHBW Engineering Team with their CMS103 motherboard and PCSF51 Single Board Computer at the international design competition Formula Student Germany (FSG), where they achieved an impressive third place out of over 100 competing teams and 3,000 students. DHBW Engineering utilized DFI’s low-power and ultra-tiny SBCs, making them one of the few teams capable of autonomous driving projects. As a result, the endurance performance of these components became a critical factor in achieving higher scores.

Nearly 60 students make up the DHBW Engineering Team, which has participated in two other competitions this year: FSN and FSA. Their performance faced challenges due to technical issues having to do with factors such as endurance. With the help of DFI’s products, DHBW Engineering overcame previous difficulties and achieved impressive results at this year’s FSG.

“We used DFI’s products in our autonomous system. DFI provided us with a vital part of the hardware on which the software architecture of the autonomous system is executed, which helped us to be the only one of the top 6 ranked teams on FSG to successfully complete both autonomous disciplines,” exclaimed Christian Stirm, Head of Autonomous System at DHBW Engineering.

While DHBW had the capability for autonomous driving projects, their past performance in this FSG discipline did not meet expectations. With enhanced CPU and GPU performance, DFI’s CMS103 motherboard revolutionized the driverless race car’s PC computing power for autonomous route calculations and effectively provided the necessary computational capacity for the autonomous system.

DFI’s SBC PCSF51 was selected for DHBW Engineering’s race car due to its lightweight design and its power efficiency. The PCSF51 weighed only 150 grams and required just 20 watts to operate, remained reliable under heavy computing loads from the CANape program and also monitored the battery temperature during the competition to prevent power reduction due to heat.

“We are honored to have the opportunity to assist DHBW Engineering in achieving their full potentials, because we feel that it is crucial to encourage the current generation of engineers to develop skills for intelligent transformation and the future of the automotive industry,” said Jarry Chang, DFI General Manager of Product Center.

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