Control Engineering

Paul Grayson

Team #32 OSU-ACT
October 8, 2007

Team #32 on my list is OSU-ACT.  Team leader is Prof. Umit Ozguner of Ohio State University in Columbus, OH.  They call their vehicle ACT which is short for Autonomous City Transport.

ACT is a 2006 Toyota Highlander Hybrid SUV outfitted to accomplish each of the behaviors required by the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge rules is illustrated below.  Control of the vehicle is by interfacing with existing vehicle systems for throttle, brake, and transmission.  A brushless DC motor has been added to the steering wheel and the vehicle's CAN bus provides some of the data from the car to the computer.





The sensor combination is a mix of Laser Rangefinders reaching out to 160 meters, Radar, TOF Camera, IMU, etc. which the team arrived at by having been part of both the 2004 http://www.ece.osu.edu/ion/ and the 2005 race http://www.ece.osu.edu/terramax/  teams.

While not saying much about how it all works, they divide the technology they are using into the following areas.
     Simulation & Testing
     Mapping
     Control
     Sensor Fusion
     Intelligence
     Integration
     Image Processing
     Radar

Although they did not get one of the million dollar development grants from DARPA they have been selected as on of the 36 semi-finalists.  They are getting support from the NI Foundation and the University Engineering program.  At OSU participation in the team is part of the classes being taught there and counts for college credit. (Students pay to be on the team.)

Temporary lane marking tape was in one of the school's parking lot to mark the traffic lanes for the required test course.  The vehicle demonstrated the required behaviors for the Site Visit inspection team without flaws.  To reach level of performance a great deal testing was done along the way using a variety of interesting looking vehicles and sensors.

 
 

Some of the sensors are:
Forward looking 215 degree IBEO Alasca XT laser scanning out to 160 meters.
Sick LMS 180 degree offset 20 degrees scanning out to 60 meters both sides
Mobileye looking forward for lane keeping.
MA/COM radar both sides.

It will be interesting to see if this teams varied experience gives the team a practical advantage over the other teams in the race.  After the race they can continue to teach classes on automated vehicles as this new class of vehicles becomes more common.

GO ROBOTS !

Posted by Paul Grayson on October 8, 2007 | Comments (0)