[nuttle]

After a brief search, it appears there are parts that would support a controller that could replicate the function of Jags, Vics, and even Spikes and that would be pretty bulletproof, including being housed in a non-ventilated enclosure and handling abuse up to and including reverse battery connection. An H-bridge using four of these IPB180N03S4L-01 and one of these TLE6284G would have a rating on the order of 180A @ 30V (at least). This includes shoot-through protection, short-circuit protection, undervoltage protection, and more. Mounting everything on a heat spreader should be one way to provide over-temperature protection, and it is possible to handle reverse-polarity by turning everything on and relying on the 40-amp breaker to trip (by turning on each of the FETs, resistance is lowered, along with power/heat dissapation in the controller).

This would need to be paired with a microcontroller to handle CAN, serial, PWM, safety, an encoder, PID, etc. The component count and costs should be doable and the size could be quite compact. The firmware really isn't that bad and could be done as a collaboration.

I know this is past the deadline and talk is cheap and I'm really just throwing this out for discussion or future consideration. The capabilities in this area seem to advance and there might easily be better parts or modules with higher integration out there, but this is a concrete data point, if nothing else. There are FETs with less than 0.001 ohm resistance, 60A * 60A * 0.001 ohm is only 3.6W! The real trick seems to be finding the right integrated pre-driver with all the features that would be ideal for this application.

Of course, costs are a big consideration and the modules would have to be manufactured somewhere, a contract manufacturer that would take this volume would probably be the major cost, but still -- seems doable. A team with the time (say starting a year ago) and the right resources might even be able to turn this into a nce fundraiser...