Making A Perception Cart
Concept
In Year 1 of the Autodrive Challenge II (2021-2022), aUToronto was tasked with building the perception system of a self-driving car. The vehicle in question is a next generation Bolt EUV provided to us by GM onto which this system would go. We would receive this new vehicle in Year 2 of the competition. So how does one build a self-driving car without a car? Enter the perception cart. The perception cart hosts the sensor suite and our perception system which will be used in future years of the competition. It is a development and testing platform that we made and took to MCity, Michigan in 2022 the site of the competition. The picture above is of the "flight team", a group of core members of aUToronto that went to the competition.
After driving from Toronto and crossing the US border, we arrived at the site of the competition. The first order of business was to assemble the perception cart that had been shipped over. The entire team sprung into action and we had one of the fastest build times compared to other university teams, having put together the entire system in less than an hour.
aUToronto members at UofT Aerospace Institute (UTIAS) before competition. Attribution: aUToronto
A Year Of Work And Only A Week Of Competition
Some highlights of us setting up when arriving at the competition.
Attribution: aUToronto
Design Of The Perception Cart
As part of Year 1 of Autodrive Challenge II, I had the opportunity to co-author a concept design report with other members of the team. Along with Frank Qian (Team Principal for 2021-2022) and Justin Bauer (Object Tracking lead), I also gave a concept design presentation during the competition as well sharing insights about design decisions we made as a team.
Results Of Year 1 of Autodrive Challenge II
The aUToronto flight team, Professor Steven Waslandar (left) and Milad Alekajbaf (right) from General Motors at the awards ceremony.
Attribution: aUToronto and SAE ADC II
We won in several sub-challenges of Year 1 of the Autodrive Challenge II and were the overall winners as well. The University of Toronto wrote an article about our success which can be read here. Onwards, to the remaining 3 years of the competition. This time with an actual car, not a cart.