I built this car for the IronCar race, where all cars are driven by artificial intelligence. It's the result of several weeks of tweaking and programming.
- RaspberryPi 3b+
- RC car (T2M Pirate Shooter)
- PiCamera (wide angle)
- RaspberryPi PWM shield
- some voltage regulators
- wifi dongle
- 2x batteries
- relay module as an emergency stop
The car's on-board computer is in charge of processing the images in order to predict the wheels' orientation to correct the car's trajectory. This analysis is done by a combination of convolutional and sequential neural networks. These networks predict a direction according to the input image, processed by algorithms in charge of transforming the camera feed into data adapted for the network.
The other on-board computer (it was an Arduino at first but it has been replaced by a PWM shield) is in charge of retrieving the predictions of the network and transmitting them to the different motors.
To improve stability and thus image quality, I 3D printed two mounts to hold the plexiglass base.