AMZ News - AMZ Driverless
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AMZ News
DRIVERLESS - THE NEXT STEP
«gotthard» driverless showrun
© AMZ, Fabio Meier
Preparations for the autonomous test drive
© AMZ
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AMZ Rollout
© AMZ, Fabio Meier
Rollout ced the arrival of a reloaded «gotthard» On 17th May, the team presents their
waiting to zoom ahead autonomously. first cost event. The cost event was
On the morning of 14th May 2018, appreciated by the judges for the orga-
the EKZ Dietikon campus is abuzz with ZF Race Camp nisation and presentation, with valuable
activity and excitement. The dynamic feedback given on the cost report.
team of AMZ driverless is busy practi- The ZF Race Camp lasted from 16-
cing the trajectory tests of the car and 18 May, and was packed full of both On the evening of 18th May, the team
ensuring that the hardware and the soft- static events and testing on the test was suited up in their white AMZ polos
ware integration of «gotthard» driverless track. With over 600 students from elec- and ready to present the Autonomous
is working reliably. As the day progres- tric, combustion and driverless teams Design event. With each team member
ses, the entire team convenes around from many countries, the AMZ Driver- eager to explain their work modules, the
the car and does the final rounds of less team was enthusiastic to showca- judges were impressed with the profes-
hardware checks before the car is se gotthard. In addition to testing on sionalism and technical preparation for
showcased to the public. a large test track, this event gave the the event. Their feedback on the overall
team experience in organising themsel- presentation and work package discus-
At 6pm, the gathered audience are ves in an event, presenting some of the sions will ensure that the team is even
given a visual treat of the splendid ra- static disciplines, and interacting with more prepared for the next events.
cing cars produced by AMZ since the other teams.
beginning of the season in September A large test track was available on
2017. A presentation follows explaining There was a spirit of community and which the team gathered important data
the various building blocks of transfor- sharing between the Formula Student for further testing. One of the highlights
ming «gotthard» into a driverless car. teams, as everyone is willing to help if was to see gotthard perceive the cones
another team needs a specific tool, ma- and navigate autonomously through the
After this wonderful presentation, the terial, or even just a bite to eat. During track while being pushed manually.
moment everyone was waiting for finally the day, teams showcased their cars in
arrived. The show run of the driverless a large hall, where each team had a de- At the end of the race camp, the
«gotthard» is well appreciated with the dicated area to continue work and pre- team has gained technical knowledge
car following a fixed trajectory without parations on their car. through the feedback from experts,
any deviation. With this, AMZ announ- has understood how a formula student
«gotthard»
© Kreutzweise
event functions, has nurtured friend- integration tests were done to prove velocity sensor. This year’s innovation
ly relationships with other teams and is that the different components of the lies in using the LiDAR point cloud to
even more inspired to push harder to system work together smoothly, time is additionally identify the colour of the
deliver a high quality formula student spent improving the performance. This cones. The vision pipeline consists of a
racing car. process will continue until the season stereo camera configuration to detect
is completed and we have reached our cones at short range, and a mono ca-
We would like to thank ZF once goals. mera to detect cones farther away.
again for hosting and organising such
an amazing event! This year’s team goals are to maximi- The design concepts and algorithms
se points in competitions, by comple- to drive the sensors were developed af-
Along the way ting all disciplines and decreasing lap ter many iterations and reviews by the
time. team and the experienced AMZ alum-
The road to developing an auto- ni. Robustness and safety have been
nomous car involves testing on many «gotthard» reloaded given due deliberation while designing
levels. The first real milestone was the the autonomous system. «gotthard» is
completion of the new and improved Driverless 2018 revived «gotthard», going to compete at some of the toug-
low-voltage system, which accommo- the car built by the AMZ Electric team hest competitions and is therefore built
dates all the new sensors. Once all the in 2016. The team is starting with a car with high quality code which is rigoro-
lights blink on, it’s as if «gotthard» has that has proved itself; «gotthard» came usly tested. For this purpose, professi-
new life. At the same time, the enginee- 1st overall in FSE Austria, and 2nd in onal practices such as automated code
rs were hard at work on completing a FSE Spain. Hardware modifications testing and agile product management
baseline version of the software pipe- include a newly designed high-volta- tools have been adopted.
line. ge accumulator, additional sensors for
perception, and actuators for steering The team also focuses on creating a
The so-called “push-test” was the and braking. The low-voltage electrical software platform that can be used by
first time that «gotthard» steered au- system underwent modifications to ac- AMZ Driverless teams in future years.
tonomously, following a simulated tra- commodate the new functionality and
jectory blindly (i.e. without perception). incorporate an improved safety system.
However, at this stage «gotthard» still
needs a little push, as the high vol- To empower it with autonomous ca-
tage system is still in progress. Next, pabilities, «gotthard» has been reloaded
perception was added by including the with several sensors such as the LiDAR,
cameras and LiDAR. Once most of the cameras, a GPS system and an optical
Testing at Alpnach
© AMZ, Sonja Brits
Driverless team 2018 in both Static and Dynamic disciplines. le and safe autonomous racing car. It is
With one Formula Student Driverless this very reason which enabled them to
The 2018 team brings diversity, in season behind the back, expectations win the overall trophy at FSG Driverless,
terms of both nationality and skillset. for the 2018 teams are set even higher. along with awards for coming first in En-
Students are mostly busy studying their gineering Design, cost award, coming in
masters degree at ETH Zurich in the This year, a total of 350 out of the second in autonomous design and third
fields of Computer Science, Mechanical 1000 competition points are achievable in Business plan categories. Therefore,
Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and in the trackdrive event alone, making it the 2017 AMZ Driverless team has set
Robotics. The 20 students in the 2018 one of the most important (and exciting) the bar very high, and the AMZ Driver-
team come from over 11 nationalities, events. It has become even more de- less 2018 team is determined to keep
including India, Italy, Lichtenstein, Ger- manding this year since teams are no the AMZ flag flying high.
many, South Africa, Spain, Netherlands, longer allowed to capture GPS data of
and Thailand. the track with a so-called “track-walk” Conclusion
before starting the race. Hence the cars
This year, AMZ Driverless will be must find their way through an unknown A season of intensive brainstorming,
competing in the Formula Student Dri- map and control its motors autono- hard work and team building lies ahead,
verless competitions in both Germany mously, completely replacing the driver. but the team is positive that they will
and Italy. Already last year, the challenge proved achieve their goals and make a success
to be extremely tough, with few teams of Driverless 2018.
Second year of driverless completing a full lap.
The AMZ Driverless team would not
In 2017, Formula Student Driverless Looking back be able to develop their car without their
was introduced for the first time. The sponsors and partners, and therefore
new division of Formula Student pushed The AMZ Driverless team of 2017 we would like to thank them for their
aspiring engineers to develop an auto- did a remarkable job of transitioning a support!
nomous race car that could compete powerful beast like ‘fluela’ into a reliab-
ZF Race Camp
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