Autonomous Systems Section at MCAV
The Autonomous Systems team for 2022 is divided into two sub-teams, the StreetDrone and the MiniDrone team. Although these sub-teams are trying to solve the overarching problem of autonomy, the StreetDrone team is working on building a software stack for urban driving, whilst the MiniDrone team is working on delivering performance focused ground robots for competitions.
→ The StreetDrone Team
The StreetDrone team prioritises building fail-proof systems that can allow for Level 4 autonomous driving in an urban environment. To do so, any vehicle would need to percieve the environment, plan and navigate through it.
Perception System
To understand dynamic changes in the vehicles environment, the perception team uses both camera and LiDAR to identify, track and predict object behaviour over time.
Navigation System
Our navigation team works on simultaneous localisation and mapping to pin point where we are in our environment. Knowing this information, the vehicle can plan to drive to a destination while handling edge cases (obstacle avoidance) as it goes.
Control System
The control team works on systems that provide precise actuation commands to the vehicle while utilising feedback to ensure our vehicle follows the path that it creates.
→ The MiniDrone Team
The MiniDrone team will designing the Mk.2 for the IGVC AutoNav competition in 2023. This involves creating a small scale autonomous vehicle that will run through a course that will test the minidrone’s ability to navigate through obstacles along a drawn path. This will simulate the possibility of having full-scale autonomous vehicles on the roads.
