For my 4th-year master's project, I was part of a team of 18 people building a race car to compete in the annual formula student competition. One of the assignments I was given to work on was to design and build the pedal box unit for the car. In previous years it was decided to use high powered motors for the car instead of the traditional petrol engine and this carried forward to our year this is why there is only a brake pedal and an accelerator pedal. As there are multiple drivers with vastly different heights the unit needed to be adjustable to accommodate them. To ensure there was enough room in the car for taller people the master cylinders were placed on the front of the unit which increased how far back the unit could travel drastically. Potentiometers mounted to the side of the unit measure the position of the pedal and this data is sent to the main control board which varies the output of the motor. The potentiometers have a gear ratio of 5:1 to ensure there is enough travel range on the pot to minimise noise. There are 2 potentiometers per pedal for redundancy, the main control board compares the two signals and only if they are within a certain range will it provide power to the motor. If there is a problem with the braking system there is a switch mounted behind the brake pedal which will trigger if the pedal has been pushed too far backwards. These two features are regulations set by the competition for safety purposes.