WATO-VP Onboarding Document
Last modified: September 11th, 2024
What is WATonomous? (Short form: WATO)
Started in summer 2017, WATonomous is the University of Waterloo's first student-run autonomous car team. We are an agile group of developers, engineers, and businessmen looking to lead the next generation of robotic systems and their applications. Ultimately, we just want to prove that you don't need a room full of current FAANG employees to build a self-driving car! All you need for a self-driving car is a self-driven individual ;)
Past Achievements
Up till 2023, we had a Chevrolet, and we are proud to have finished 2nd place in the SAE AutoDrive Challenge, an international competition to build a Level 4 autonomous vehicle in four years!
Following the competition, we continued our path towards perfect autonomy, completing research papers on various autonomous vehicle technologies including action classification, control, and environment modeling. We have a track record of submitting to prestigious research conferences like ICRA, ICVES, and ITS.
Current Plan
We have a brand new car, a Kia Soul EV! We are planning on reaching level 5 autonomy all from scratch! Progress has been made over the past year, and we are aiming to be able to test track it by the end of summer 2025!
Impact, Goals
We want to prove that a group of dedicated students, and NOT industry professionals, can work together and create a self-driving automotive system that can compete with the likes of the WAYMO taxi and Google Self-Driving Car.
For the end of the Fall 2024 term, we hope to have the majority of our vehicle platforming work completed and to have the car (along with its peripheral systems) operate under its own power. We are also expecting a substantial computing power upgrade to the onboard systems that we hope to have ready by the Winter 2024 term.
A Bit About Vehicle Platform...
Directors: Xander Hayhoe, Mahir Mahota
Interfacing
Leads: Mariam ElSahhar
Current Projects:
- Most components on the interfacing PCBs are soldered. We do need to add connectors and completely resolder a whole new board.
- Boards and all assembled hardware logic need to be thoroughly tested (based on predetermined test parameters) before implementation into the car.
- Install DBW system with the joysticking tele-drive module for user overriding.
- Migrate EXISTING Joystick controller code from ROS1 to ROS2.
- Implement arbiter and MUX logic for the vehicle architecture, signals control.
- Run final tests of the ass
Power systems
Leads: Benjamin Liu
Current Projects:
- For the end of October, we hope to have the car’s sensor rack and compute module running off of the internal 12V battery. In the car’s current state, these systems along with other peripherals run off of external power sources such as a wall outlet. To reach a minimal viable product, we need this crucial step to be completed.
Onboarding Challenges:
- Interfacing Challenge: Do the ASD Assignment, as it uses the ROS2 Stack, which VP will do a lot of work with! WATO ASD Assignment (opens in a new tab)
Note: Instead of sending proof of completion to Eddy, please send the proof to Xander; Discord: @Xander1452.
- Electrical Challenge: Take the Electrical Safety and Awareness course offered on LEARN to all Waterloo students (self-enrollment).