“We are very intentionally increasing the degree of difficulty from year to year, especially in the final round,” said Dr. (Engineering) Lars Mesow, member of the competition committee, about the performance of the eight college teams. “This new generation of talented students showed exceptional creativity and came up with unique solutions.” The Audi Q5 model cars equipped with ultrasonic sensors and video camera had to autonomously avoid obstacles, negotiate intersections and cross traffic and drive at a safe distance to flowing traffic ahead. The challenges also include executing a left turn across oncoming traffic, precision parking maneuvers and safe emergency braking when obstructions suddenly appeared.
The team FAUtonOHM impressed the jury with its overall performance. The students confidently mastered the driving tasks on the test course and presented their development work with sound scientific explanations. Second place, with a monetary award of 5,000 euros, went to the team KACADU of the Research Center Informatics Karlsruhe. The team MomenTUM of the Technical University Munich took third place and received, 1,000 euros in prize money. Andreas Reich, Head of Electronics Pre-Development at AUDI AG, congratulated the three top placed teams and presented the awards. “I want to express my great respect to all participants,” said Reich. “Anyone who already shows such enthusiasm for future issues such as piloted driving during their studies can expect some exciting career prospects.”
On the final day, Ricky Hudi, Head of Development Electrics/Electronics at AUDI AG, explained the benefits of highly precise digital maps and the future of Car-to-X communication. Audi demonstrated a typical use case in cooperation with experts from HERE. A model car detects an obstacle to traffic and stores this information on a real-time map. The information is then sent to a car that is following behind, which is able to pass through the hazard zone safely and easily. “Here we are showing, on a model scale, how swarm intelligence can work,” explained Dr. Stefan Knirsch, Audi Board Member for Technical Development at AUDI AG. “Real-time hazard warnings about glare ice, vehicle breakdowns and developing traffic jams give drivers valuable supplemental information and enhance traffic safety significantly.”
Today, static HD maps by HERE provide 3D models of the road, transportation infrastructure and environment that are accurate to the inch. The next step is to link the maps with real-time information from real traffic events. Cars acquire this information with their cameras, sensors and control systems and route the data, anonymized, to secure servers for processing and evaluation. From there, the information is immediately shared with other road users.
You can find more information and all of the results online at:
www.audi-autonomous-driving-cup.com and www.audi-mediacenter.com