University of Florida / Kookmin University ©

Overall Approach


One scheduling concern is that the Indy Light vehicle will not be available to the teams until May 2021 while the race is only five months after that in October 2021. It is true that well designed and tested software could be smoothly transitioned from the dynamic simulator to the vehicle. However, the team believes that it can create a more robust system if software and hardware can be tested together earlier in the competition.

To address this, the team has obtained permission from New Smyrna Speedway to test at their track (see Figure 1). This speedway is 110 miles from the UF campus. It is a half-mile asphalt track with 23 degree banking in the turns. Average lap speeds of 75 mph are possible. In January, the UF-KU team traveled to the speedway and logged lidar, camera, and GPS/IMU data to be used for SLAM testing. The point cloud with 1.8 million data points is shown in Figure 2.














Fig 1:New Smyrna Speedway









New Smyrna Speedway







Fig. 2: Point Cloud Data from New Smyrna Speedway


For a test vehicle, UF has purchased a Tony kart go-kart specifically for this project. This kart is capable of speeds up to 80 mph. Students are designing and implementing actuators with a Velodyne Puck, cameras, and a Sylphase GPS/IMU. The UF kart is shown in Figure 3. The schedule goal is to have the UF kart driving autonomously at New Smyrna Speedway in time to be shown in the Round 2 video that is due by 20 May 2020.

















Fig. 3: UF Tony-Kart


In parallel with this, KU is automating one of their university team’s Formula SAE vehicles (see Figure 4). The schedule is for them to ship the vehicle to UF by Feb 2021 so that two autonomous cars can be tested simultaneously at New Smyrna Speedway. Two cars will allow for testing of the

higher-level functions associated with vehicle passing.
















Fig 4: Kookmin University SAE Formula Car

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