Team leader Danilo Caporale explains the unique challenges of developing an autonomous vehicle that works at high speeds.
Die Indy Autonomous Challenge (IAC) At CES 2023, nine teams from six countries competed in the high-speed head-to-head car racing competition, in which state-of-the-art vehicles reached top speeds of 180 miles per hour.
The robotics team from the Technology Innovation Institute (TII), a global research center in Abu Dhabi, has teamed up with autonomous experts from the HiPeRT Lab and the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Italy) to form the TII EuroRacing team, the competes at the top stakes event.
dr Danilo Caporale, leader of the 14-strong team, sat down with FOX Business at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where the roar of the Dallara AV-21 race car echoed off the Nevada Sunrise Mountain and eager crowds cheered for their own -vehicle’s drive election. Caporale’s team, crouched under a black tent, debated fervently while grappling with multiple computer systems.
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dr TII-EuroRacing team leader Danilo Caporale speaks to Fox News Digital during the CES Autonomous Challenge on January 7, 2023. (Fox News/FOX Business/Fox News)
“We’ve been working together for years now, it’s very good. I love my team,” said Caporale.
Try cooking that up highly complex technology In a brief logline, Caporale said the human factor in relation to the vehicle is pre-determined, using cameras, sensors, radar and lasers to help the car make informed decisions about its terrain and opponent within milliseconds.
In addition to the entertainment factor inherent in racing, Caporale found that the track also acts as a controlled environment for testing, allowing better safety features related to aggressive maneuvering and high-speed cornering to be developed for future implementation in commercial and emergency vehicles.
The single elimination tournament features multiple rounds of head-to-head passing matches. Dallara AV-21s, which all teams use with their own software, take turns playing the roles of defender and attacker, with the former leading and the latter attempting to pass or follow. Attacker passes are attempted until one or both cars fail to successfully complete the pass at high speeds.
Each team competes with the same car, but with their own autonomous locomotion algorithms.
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The Dallara AV-21 race car for Team TII-EuroRacing races around the track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on January 7, 2023. (Fox News/FOX Business/Fox News)
Previously, in October 2021, the team set a world record for the fastest average lap speed in an autonomous racing car at 220 km/h at the same circuit. Caporale hopes the races will serve as a springboard for vehicles with as little human interaction as possible.
“Last year the race was a bit more structured. You could only overtake on one lane or the other. This year we’re following more natural racing lines, so you’re allowed to overtake in different ways,” he said. “You also need to understand where your opponent is going to go, so it’s harder to predict.”
FOX Business also engaged with Dr. Ray Johnson and Dr. Najwa Aaraj, the executives of TII-EuroRacing, who spoke in more detail about the challenges of developing the vehicle quickly through successful simulation tests before being shortlisted and getting their hands on the actual vehicle.
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the TII EuroRacing team’s version of the Dallara AV-21 race car at Las Vegas Motor Speedwy, 7th January 2023. (The House of Don Inc.)
“We had almost 12 months to develop the software and the algorithms and then run the simulation and qualify – or filter through the simulation. Then we got our hands on the hardware itself two to three months before the race,” Aaraj said, describing an intense period of bug fixes, hardware and software updates.
She revealed that the teams had very limited face-to-face interaction with the vehicle before the race, adding another layer of difficulty. Team members typically hit the track two to three weeks before the event and are only given track time with the vehicle, subject to track availability.
The IAC organizes competitions in which university-related teams compete against each other to create a complete program autonomous racing cars on legendary NASCAR tracks. They are in the process of building a hub and using competitions to attract the brightest minds in robotics and artificial intelligence to other technologies in the industry. It began as a $1 million prize competition between 31 universities representing the best STEM programs from 10 countries.
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Johnson said the team is happy to participate in such competitions to help demonstrate and develop their autonomous vehicle capabilities.
“TII and Abu Dhabi will continue to be at the forefront of developing autonomous capabilities in autonomous racing, so keep an eye on that spot,” he said.
