The Autonomous Driving Challenge is an annual competition aimed at students with a
technical background in robotics who are interested in developing the automotive
technology of the future. Participants program fully automated driving functions and the
necessary software architectures.
They work with 1:8 scale vehicles, developed exclusively for the competition. The cars
are equipped with a LIDAR sensor, ultrasound, cameras, a high-performance NVIDIA
graphics card, a CPU and ROS libraries.
Thanks to in-house developed software, the models should be able to drive themselves
according to all rules and avoid obstacles.
The project starts at the beginning of the year, when the selected teams receive the
model vehicle. The organisation provides teaching materials, training sessions and
technical talks by robotics experts to ensure that all participants have a common starting
point.
The teams will have eight months to develop their software solution, with the support of
a university tutor, which will eventually allow the cars to navigate autonomously around
a track. During this time, they will be mentored by the organisation and will perform
intermediate tasks.
The final test will give the students the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and
efforts. The vehicles will have to overcome a series of challenges on a track design and
built specifically for the event. They will test their cars in different scenarios, related to
the requirements of a real environment.