F1/10 Autonomous Racing

1/10 the scale. 10 times the fun!

The F1/10 autonomous platform is the building block and the vehicle for educating tomorrow’s engineers on the interlocking concerns of performance, control, and safety for autonomous systems, in particular autonomous vehicles.

Students build, drive, and race 1/10 scale autonomous ehicles capable of speeds in excess of 30mph.

Agile autonomy research

The F1/10 platform enables research in agile autonomy. It is often said in racing "If everything seems under control, then you are probably not going fast enough". The research focus here is on testing the limits of control with algorithms for path planning, aggressive maneuvers, overtaking strategies, at high speeds. Pushing the car to its limits on in a controlled environment, such as a racetrack is the best way to stress test the breaking points of the perception, planning, and control pipeline of the autonomous vehicle, and what it takes to get the car straightened out from such extreme situations.  Specific goals include:

1. Algorithms for aggressive maneuvering and control, 
2. Algorithms for high speed path planning and overtaking,

Autonomous racing competitions

Few things focus the mind and excite the spirit like a competition. In the early days of racing, competitors first had to build their vehicles before they could race them. It was thus as much an engineering as a racing competition. We want to rekindle that competitive spirit in today’s, autonomous, racers.
The F1/10 competition focuses on creating a meaningful and challenging design experience for students. The competition involves designing, building, and testing an autonomous 1/10th scale race car all while learning about perception, planning, and control for autonomous navigation.