Autonomous driving is a highly topical issue, often mentioned in news and television broadcasts. This course aims to examine the difficulties and technological challenges associated with this increasingly relevant topic. In particular, the focus of the course is on autonomous driving and more generally on intelligent mobility, which includes control systems for vehicles.
Politecnico di Milano plays an important role in the development of autonomous driving systems, with the Poli Moove team standing out in competitions such as the Indy Autonomous Challenge, where our team has won numerous editions. Since last year, we have also participated in the Mille Miglia, a historic vintage car race, presenting an autonomous driving car.
The course is structured around five fundamental themes, which outline the role and objectives of an autonomous driving system. These themes include control aspects, such as steering angle management, braking, and acceleration to follow a predetermined trajectory. This trajectory is generated by the planning module, while localization mapping manages the vehicle’s position. Additionally, it is necessary to identify surrounding obstacles through perception.
The goal of the course is not only to explain fundamental concepts but also to provide an engineering vision. Not only will individual themes be analyzed, but students will also learn how to reason in systemic terms. We won’t have time to examine all aspects in detail, considering that many of them are still the subject of research today. However, we will learn to break down an apparently complex problem into more manageable sub-problems.
The course is structured into morning classroom sessions and afternoon practical experimentation sessions. During the latter, students will apply the methods illustrated in the morning and adapt them to the vehicle driving problem proposed by the Politecnico.
In the final exercise of the course, students will have to compete on a predetermined route, with the aim of having the robot follow the route in the shortest time and with the maximum regularity possible.