Robot racing car unveiled at Mobile World Congress
The vehicle introduced at the MWC is equipped with four electric motors; each one with a power of 300 kilowatts. These four motors accelerate the vehicle to a speed of some 320 kph (200 mph), despite its surprisingly high weight of 975 kilograms owed to the powerful batteries it needs. At the recent Formula E race in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the vehicle achieved an average speed of 185 kph. (However, it is said that the vehicle came off the track and was damaged).
The vehicle is equipped with numerous sensors – five lidars, two radar sensors, 18 ultrasound and two optical speed sensors. In addition, six cameras visually monitor the Robocar’s surroundings. A satellite navigation system enables the car to find its exact location on the earth’s surface.
As the brain of the Robocar acts a Drive PX 2 single-board computer from Nvidia, a device designed to enable autonomous driving and establish Artificial Intelligence (AI) in cars.
The Roborace autonomous racing car (click to enlarge)
The vehicle has been developed by Daniel Simon, one of the founders of Roborace who looks back on ample experience in the design of Formula 1 racing cars. First tests of Robocar prototypes took place in August 2016 at the Dennington Park racing track in England.
The organizers of the Formula E racing series intend to have autonomous robot cars competing against each other ahead of the “official” Formula E race as part of the accompanying program. The competition will last one hour, ten teams with two vehicles each will participate in the race. All 20 robot cars will feature identical hardware; the competitive character of the race results from the quality of their real-time algorithms. All vehicles will also run the same basic software developed by British startup investment company Kinetik which is funding the Roborace development team.
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