Fully autonomous robot racing.

In my first year of university, I joined the University of Waterloo Robotics Team (UW Robotics). The team builds robots to compete in a variety of competitions. While in first year, I was tasked with leading the fabrication of an autonomous RC car-sized vehicle to compete in the International Autonomous Robot Racing Challenge (IARRC).

International Autonomous Robot Racing Challenge

The IARRC is held annually at the University of Waterloo, where teams come from around the world to compete in racing challenges. The autonomous vehicles can participate in a drag race and circuit race.

IARRC

Our robot is pictured on the left. It features a light-weight aluminum chassis, roll cage made from PVC piping, three cameras and a LIDAR for obstacle detection and path planning.

Throughout this experience I was able to learn a lot about robotics and autonomous systems. While I mainly focused on fabrication as the mechanical lead, I also had the opportunity to help the software team, learning about computer vision and using the ROS framework. The competition further strengthened my passion for mechatronics and was definitely one of my most memorable first-year experiences.