Autonomous RC Car Controller

The Embedded Computing Systems Laboratory is equipped with the Vanderbilt Embedded Computing Platform for Autonomous Vehicles (VECPAV)–an infrastructure designed to allow for system design in Simulink during design time and for automatic C-code generation and distribution onto real-time QNX computational nodes. The system was formerly used to control the autonomous motion of small helicopters. Our task was to use VECPAV to control a small car instead. After becoming familiar with the infrastructure, we assembled a remote-control car from a kit and fitted it with a platform for a set of localizing sensors. Then we designed a model-based controller for the car’s steering and throttle and implemented it in Simulink. The VECPAV system allowed us to test the response of our controller to real-time car motion.