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UC-SanDiego: 10weeks F1Tenth - UC San Diego

F1Tenth - UC San Diego


UC-SanDiego
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About This Course

Whether it's well-known car manufacturer like Tesla or new technology companies like Google: many different companies are working on the development of autonomous vehicles. This emerging field provides a lot of potential and if you are interested in learning how to drive with an autonomous vehicle on a given map, then this course is for you.

But don't be worried about that this is another theory-only lecture series: In this course we will work hands-on and lab centered for everyone who is interested in the field of artificial intelligence, motion planning, control theory, and applied machine learning. From the very beginning we will introduce you to both a simulation environment and real hardware: Our 1/10th-scale autonomous race car.

We will not only teach you about the theory, you will also learn how to program the algorithms. We will also show you how to bring your autonomous driving algorithms on the real F1TENTH Hardware. By focusing on the racing environment you will also learn how to develop algorithms that operate on the edge of vehicle dynamics: High accelerations, high velocities and high computation frequencies.

In the 10 week course we will teach you about the fundamentals in autonomous driving and will focus on efficient racing on a given map. We will show you different methods for creating a map and localizing the car afterwards on that map. In addition we will try out different path planners to make the car more agile on the racetrack.

What you'll learn

After attending the course you will have a comprehensive overview of the perception, planning and control methods used in autonomous driving. You will be able to select the appropriate method and algorithm for various autonomous driving problems and then implement it with appropriate code. In addition you are able to program the F1TENTH Autonomous Race car to drive fast and safe around a racetrack. In addition you will learn:

  • Introduction to the ROS framework
  • Refresh your control theory knowledge
  • Control theory and control application
  • Introduction to an Simulator for autonomous driving
  • Different techniques for localization of the car
  • Different techniques for the fast and secure path planning
  • The deployment of software on real hardware
  • GPU acceleration for Machine Learning algorithms
  • Differences between SiL and HiL development
  • Head-to-Head racing

Prerequisites

This course is an integration of the concepts above and is not intended to be a beginner course in any of the above subjects. As of right now, the contents on this website are best suited for the graduate-level if not at the very least an undergraduate senior-level course.

Course Staff

Course Staff Image #1

Dr. Jack Silberman

Dr. Silberman is a lecturer at University of California San Diego Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE), Electrical and Computer Engineering(ECE), a Faculty at the Contextual Robotics Institute teaching Introduction to Autonomous Vehicle, and advising students on Capstone projects for ECE and MAE. Moreover, he mentors dozens of students on robotics related projects including working as the principal investigator at the affordable smart wheelchair project. Jack Silberman has over 20 years experience in automation and robotics. He started working in robotics while pursuing his B.S. in electrical engineering in Brazil. Dr. Silberman did robotics post graduate work in England, he holds a master's degree from PUC-Rio in mechanical engineering, and a Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University where his research was on mobile field robotics. Jack has worked in educational robotics, NASA sponsored mobile field robotics, semiconductor automation, biotech, and medical devices. Dr. Silberman works for a global leader medical device company with responsibilities in Canada, Central and Latin America.

Frequently Asked Questions

What web browser should I use?

The Open edX platform works best with current versions of Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Internet Explorer, or Safari. See our list of supported browsers for the most up-to-date information.

Do i need to buy and built the F1Tenth Hardware?

The car is an additional add-on and provides you the important insight in the deployment of the software on real hardware.

  1. Course Number

    10weeks

  2. Classes Start

  3. Classes End

  4. Estimated Effort

    10 hours per Week
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