Electric Vehicle Club - Autonomous Division

The goal of the Autonomous Division is to build a go-kart that, well, is autonomous! It is meant to compete in the spring against many other schools in which we put it on a track, and it does the rest. Our kart is a very standardized design, and so rather than take a Mechanical position in this club, I am actually going into software. I've taken on the lead role for ROS (Robot Operating System) integration. This is a project that is still pretty early in development, so while everyone is learning their algorithms and frameworks, I am learning ROS, creating templates and resources for the team to use to make getting their code into our ROS network a lot easier. The main component of the kart is a stereo camera system that pumps images into an algorithm that readings the images and creates a 3D bitmap. We then pipe that data into a program that is able to turn that 3D bitmap into a 2D dataset in which we are able to tell the driving software where it can and cannot go. The software makes its decisions and sends the signal to our steering and acceleration controllers to make the kart move. And with ROS, I am the one connecting this all!