ELEC390

Queen's University 3rd year design project course on a small autonomous vehicle.

Website for contest information: https://queensuca.sharepoint.com/teams/CCT-938446/SitePages/LearningTeamHome.aspx

Tasks

• prioritize tasks: everything with names on it are due by feb 11 ✅ 2025-01-28
• write about ethics issue with road rule R4, conversation with Gregory Kelly @Hendrix ✅ 2025-02-08
  • My question: Will we get an "R4: Stay On the Road" infraction if we drive off the road to avoid another vehicle driving head-on to us?
  • Gregory's response: That's a really interesting question. Got a good bit of discussion going in the teaching team's meeting. We aren't really even certain how it would be handled under real-life road laws (it appears it would be initially assessed, but a lot would come down to specifics and lawyers). For the time being, we've decided that R4 would still apply. However, we are considering mechanisms that would appropriately reward teams who achieve this type of capability. Regardless of how the rules evolve, this decision would make an excellent ethics consideration in your logbook and reports.
• finish setting up PiCarX as described on the SharePoint @Luke
• set up programming/testing environment on the PiCarX so that we can rapidly test all features @Jacob
  • figure out software development environment (combining Python and C)
  • make PiCarX remote controllable or at least programmable (figure out the drive control interface)
  • make PiCarX able to sense data from all sensors simultaneously
  • make PiCarX able to record sensor data (ideally so that we can live stream sensor data to a laptop, perhaps at least the head camera feed)
  • set up high-level software interface between sensors and drive controls and API calls so that we can incrementally add in each new feature as it is developed
• make PiCarX able to run software on both Raspberry Pi and Coral TPU
  • figure out how to run stuff on the Coral TPU
• determine strategy for different detection of objects/patterns
  • road signs (stop, no entry, yield, one way) @Hendrix
    • upload dataset of readsigns 📅 2025-03-07
  • road markings (road boundary, road center line, intersection stop line, cross walk, one way arrow) @Jacob
  • road obstacles (vehicles, duck pedestrians, other objects) @Hendrix
    • take photos of specialty duck we got 📅 2025-03-07
• represent the map of Quackston in software that aligns with the VPFS @Hendrix ✅ 2025-02-09
  • see website: ✅ 2025-02-09
    • https://queensuca.sharepoint.com/teams/CCT-938446/SitePages/The-Town.aspx
    • https://queensuca.sharepoint.com/teams/CCT-938446/SitePages/GPS-and-Fare-System.aspx
  • see [[ELEC390/ELEC390/Design/mapping/README|README]] for details
• VPFS Setup @Matt
  • make PiCarX able to send API calls to VPFS and store results
  • perhaps use flask, find some other library
• setup basic vehicle controls @Jacob
  • acceleration motors
  • steering servo
• setup vehicle signaling @Luke
  • put break and turn signal lights on PiCarX
  • make break light system work
    • specify what states of the vehicle will trigger brake lights
  • make turn signal light system work
    • specify blinking rate and high-level software control interface
• miscellaneous vehicle controls @Luke
  • head camera servos
  • duck lift servos
• Test physical capabilities of drive controls
  • we could get some rubber matt to test the car on for feb 8
  • turn radius at different speeds and road surfaces (feb 11)
  • top speed on different road surfaces (feb 11)
  • minimum braking distance at different speeds and road surfaces from the point in time when braking is initiated in software
    • figure out how we are going to measure this (perhaps using the grayscale line detector?)
• break down more tasks here
  • route planning (optimal sequence of road and intersections between two destinations on the map)
  • path planning (specific path on the road to be followed by drive controls)
  • ride selection
  • position generation
  • represent the reward system / road rules in software
  • be able to infer vehicle position based on sensor data
  • be able to infer other object positions base on sensor data
  • implement autonomous driving capabilities

Complete

• Project Proposal Report 📅 2025-01-26 ✅ 2025-01-26
  • Write Sections📅 2025-01-25
    • Executive Summary @Hendrix ✅ 2025-01-26
    • Project Management @Hendrix ✅ 2025-01-26
    • Finish up data sources (where to get data) @Hendrix ✅ 2025-01-26
    • Conclusions @Matt
  • Review and edit sections 🛫 2025-01-25 📅 2025-01-26 ✅ 2025-01-26
    • Jacob ✅ 2025-01-26
    • Hendrix ✅ 2025-01-26
    • Luke ✅ 2025-01-26
    • Matt ✅ 2025-01-26
  • ensure consistent formatting
    • remove our names in headings
    • paragraph spacing and indenting (vspace vs. newline vs. \\ vs. \\\\?) (decided on indenting all but the first paragraph in a section)
    • technologies and tools table formatting
      • Hendrix needs to update python libraries
    • references
      • Jacob
      • Hendrix
      • Luke
      • Matt
  • submit on OnQ ✅ 2025-01-26
• Design Headlight Board for taxi
• Create Lift for duck passengers