Automated and Connected Driving Challenges - Research Project

Automated and connected driving is a major topic in automotive research at the moment. As an addition to the ACDC – Course, the “Automated and Connected Driving Challenges (ACDC) – Research Project” lets students conduct a research project on their own, in which they contribute to one of the current research challenges in the field. The research projects enable students to put their acquired skills into practice, demonstrate self-dependent work in a group, and play an active role in shaping future Intelligent Transport Systems that are safe, sustainable, and accessible to all.

In particular, students will:

• choose from a list of available topics related to the challenges introduced in the ACDC – Course;
• or alternatively come up with a topic on their own;
• deepen their knowledge regarding a specific challenge in automated and connected driving;
• write and implement a short executable research paper in the form of a Jupyter Notebook;
• present their work at the end of the project.

Multiple touchpoints during the semester will support the students in conducting their own research. They will:

• work in groups of up to 3 students;
• be able to get feedback from ika researchers in regular workshops;
• get access to high performance computing infrastructure at ika;
• get the chance to continue their work in order to publish a paper at a scientific conference (optional)

Previous knowledge expected

Students should be familiar with the challenges, concepts, and software tools introduced in the ACDC – Course. While not a strict requirement, we reserve the right to give priority to students who have successfully finished the ACDC – Course exam if more than 20 students register for the research project.

Syllabus

Learning Outcomes

Key learnings

1. In-depth programming of automated driving functions as learnt in ACDC Course
2. Academic approach to tackle a research question
3. Contribution to current research challenges in automated and connected driving

Level 1-2

• Students can name and explain current research challenges in automated and connected driving.
• Students can name and explain one of those research challenges, which is chosen for their research project, in particular detail.
• Students can name and explain related literature and research approaches that contribute to their research project.
• Students can explain the approach they chose to tackle the research challenge of their research project.

Level 3-6

• Students are able to contribute to current research challenges in automated and connected driving.
• Students can program functions for automated and connected vehicles using Python and C++.
• Students can integrate their developed functions into the Robot Operating System.
• Students can train neural networks, e.g. with TensorFlow.
• Students are able to evaluate their developed functions.
• Students are able to contribute to one specific research challenge in a (group) research project.
• Students are able to describe and explain their work in a research paper.
• Students are able to describe and explain their work in a presentation.