Moscow Poly team presented “Guepard” quadcopter that was electrified for “Stels” – the largest Russian bike and motocycle manufacturer (“Velomotors” holding). The press-conference and test-drive of the quadcopter took place on March 29.
Moscow Poly president Vladimir Miklushevskii, director of the Advanced Engineering School, as well as the lead designer Andrei Zhogin and “Velomotors” director for advertising and marketing Alexander Bechin took part in the conference. The speakers shared the details of the joint cooperation and its benefits.
“This event serves the example of successful cooperation between the University and company”, - Moscow Poly president Vladimir Miklushevskii – “Approximately 2 years ago the representatives of the company contacted us and suggested to electrify the quadcopter. The University back then was faced with the mission to solve the issue of breaking away fr om CI engine. The benefits are obvious – noiselessness, environmental compatibility, convenience”.
Electric quadcopter can be used to move around the cross-country terrain, this is an outlander with great traction characteristics to reach to the inaccessible places. According to the “Stels” insider, it`s quite noiseless and doesn`t pollute the air. In the process of electrification, the key goal was to preserve the basic characteristic, such as the full drive, back drive and differential blockup.
Today, on the Russian market of electric qudcopters, there are only Chinese models represented. By most part, such transportation vehicles are low-powered and lack full-drive. Motor vehicles with such characteristics can`t manage the cross-country, which really narrows the exploitation capacities. The engineers designed overdrive and downshift reducer, as well as the feature of automated gearshift through linear actuator. This allowed to create a unique quadcopter that doesn`t yield in capacities to its ancestor – gasoline-running "Stels" Guepard.
Alexander Bechin noted that the demand for electrification is huge abroad, so is in Russia.
“Guadcopter electrification would allow us to explore new route that were never available for other vehicles”, - he said.
Andrei Zhogin said there is a range of tests awaiting the quadcopter necessary to test its traction characteristics, air-tightness and endurance range.
Pablo Iturralde talked on technical characteristics of the quadcopter that is way more light-weight than its gasoline ancestor. The unladen weight of the quadcopter is 466,5 kg, size – 2344*1300*1550mm. The maximum speed at overdrive and downshift – 65km/h and 30km/h, correspondently. The gearbox housing is made by 3D printing with PC-320 alloys together with “RUSAL”. This alloy is an alliminum-silicon type of alloys that has aluminum, doped silicon, magnum and copper.
Speaking about the team that was engaged in the project (80% of the 25 people are Moscow Poly students), the president Vladimir Miklushevskii also mentioned the “Project Activity” discipline wh ere students carry out projects that are, as a rule, inquired by the University industrial partners.
“The ‘Stels’ project is a high-rank project. The contest for such projects is huge, we`re selecting the best motivated students. In the ‘Stels’ crew, there were not only car engineers but also IT students, specialists in urban studies, economics, marketing and management. The students were supervised by the experienced engineers, in the past – University students. Thus, Moscow Poly has a continuous cycle: first, the student wants to follow their dreams – make racing cars, for instance, and then gradually turns into a real leader. Some students stay at the University and join the crew leaded by Pablo, others start working with our partners. We`re very proud of our graduates because these are the people who managed to pass all stages of product manufacturing”, – Vladimir Miklushevskii said.
Alexander Bechin thanked the University crew for cooperation:“We`re really lucky to partner with Moscow Poly. The University has a unique atmosphere, you can see the spark in all employees` and students` eyes. People truly come here to pursue their dream, and us, as partners, made the dream products. In this sense, we`re synced with Moscow Poly. The project education allows to participate in manufacturing real products, and that is unique. I would really dream of going back 20 years and applying to Moscow Poly”.
At the press-conference, Vladimir Miklushevskii noted that Moscow Poly is a participants of the “Priority 2030” program under the “Science and Universities” national project.
“We didn`t participate in the project out of a mere interest”, – the president said, – “Moscow Poly has been working in the sphere of electric vehicle manufacturing for over 10 years, the strategic project implemented by the University under the ‘Priority 2030’ is called “Available Vehicle”. One of the main tasks that the University faces with is reviving the engineering scientific school of mechanical engineering. The requirements posed for modern cars are high, and over the last years the level has increased even higher. We focus on producing quality cutting-edge products that people are used to. At the same time, we`re trying to access this task objectively and implement it together with our industrial partners”.
For reference: Moscow Poly has been engaged in electric vehicle manufacturing for over 10 years. Over this period of time, 10 bikes have been constructed, a record for speed racing of 210,6 km/h on ice set, and the first unmanned shuttle for park zones and restricted areas constructed.
