F1Tenth Autonomous Racing Course and Competition

Contribution: An autonomous vehicle hardware platform, called F1TENTH, is developed for teaching autonomous systems hands-on. This project will design and develop the education modules and software stack for teaching at various educational levels with the theme of ``racing" and competitions that replace exams. Background: College-level robotics courses often focus on theory, while most hardware platforms for robotics teaching are low-level toys aimed at younger students at middle-school levels. The F1TENTH robotic race car fills the gap between research platforms and low-end toy cars and offers the hands-on experience in learning the topics in autonomous systems. Intended Outcomes: The F1TENTH vehicles offer a modular hardware platform and its related software for teaching the fundamentals of autonomous driving algorithms. From basic reactive methods to advanced planning algorithms, the teaching modules enhance students' computational thinking through autonomous driving with the F1TENTH vehicle. Application Design: Over 80 universities have adopted the teaching modules for their semester-long undergraduate and graduate courses for multiple years. Student feedback is used to analyze the effectiveness of the F1TENTH platform. This project's focus is to maintain and grow this community through education, outreach and K-12 training events. Findings: More than 80% of the students strongly agree that the hardware platform and modules greatly motivate their learning, and more than 70% of the students strongly agree that the hardware enhanced their understanding of the subjects. The survey results show that more than 80% of the students strongly agree that the competitions motivate them for the course.

• Record URL:
  https://ppms.cit.cmu.edu/projects/detail/445

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $100000
• Contract Numbers:

  69A3552344811

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Carnegie Mellon University

  Safety21 National UTC for Promoting Safety
  Pittsburgh, PA  United States  15213

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Center Program
  ,    
• Managing Organizations:

  Carnegie Mellon University

  Safety21 National UTC for Promoting Safety
  Pittsburgh, PA  United States  15213
• Project Managers:

  Stearns, Amy

• Performing Organizations:

  University of Pennsylvania

  ,    
• Principal Investigators:

  Mangharam, Rahul

• Start Date: 20230701
• Expected Completion Date: 20240630
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Algorithms; Autonomous vehicles; Education and training; Racing; Robotics
• Subject Areas: Education and Training; Highways; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01900374
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Safety21
• Contract Numbers: 69A3552344811
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Nov 21 2023 8:37PM