At CES 2021, the organizers of the Indy Autonomous Challenge (IAC)—Energy Systems Network (ESN) and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS)—unveiled the official racecar that will be autonomously driven by university teams in the world’s first high-speed, head-to-head autonomous race at the IMS in October 2021.

The primary goal of the IAC is to advance technologies that can speed the commercialization of fully autonomous vehicles and advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), leading to the increased safety and performance of those systems. The competition is also intended to excite the best and brightest university students from around the world to engage in hands-on engineering firsts.

The IAC is scheduled for October 23rd at the IMS, with a qualifying simulation race during the Indy 500 week in May. The total IAC prize purse is $1.5 million: $1 million awarded to the winning team of the October IAC race and an additional $500,000 for winners of the hackathons and simulation races. More than 500 undergraduate and graduate students, PhDs, and mentors have responded to the challenge, representing 39 universities in 11 countries on four continents and 14 U.S. states.

“The IAC is going to bring the best minds from around the world to solve a very complex problem, right here at the Racing Capital of the World,” said IMS President J. Douglas Boles.

Inspiration for the IAC was the DARPA Grand Challenge, the first-of-its-kind race in 2004 meant to foster the development of self-driving ground vehicles.

“The DARPA Grand Challenge proved that robots can drive themselves in very confined environments, but that they don’t have the agility and skill of a really well-trained human racecar driver to act in extreme situations,” explained by 2005 winner, Sebastian Thrun, now CEO of eVTOL pioneer Kitty Hawk Corp. “IMS is the best place in the world to challenge the robotics community to test self-driving cars. By going into a racing context, we will stretch self-driving cars to the absolute limit.”

 

The modified Dallara IL-15

The official IAC racecar is being supplied by Dallara, which has been the sole racecar supplier of the Indy Lights series since 2002. The company is modifying its IL-15, retrofitting it with hardware and controls to enable automation. Components include “rugged-edge” on-board computing, vehicle-to-vehicle communications, perception systems, high-end graphics processing units (GPUs), drive-by-wire, artificial intelligence acceleration, and powerful central processing units to run IAC teams’ software and algorithms in the racecar.

“The Dallara-built IAC racecar is the most advanced, fastest autonomous vehicle ever developed,” stated Paul Mitchell, President and CEO of ESN. “Our IAC sponsors are providing radar, LiDAR, optical cameras, and advanced computers, bringing the value of each vehicle to $1 million.”

One of the challenges for autonomous racing is solving edge-case scenarios such as avoiding unanticipated obstacles at high speeds.

“Dallara loves innovation and technological challenges, and we share the IAC’s passion for education and motorsports,” explained Stefano dePonti, CEO and General Manager, Dallara USA. “We know how the world’s best racecar drivers react in the Dallara, in high-speed scenarios, but now we have to anticipate the actions of a robot.”

 

Supporting the challenge

In addition to the racecar reveal, a spotlight session at CES presented by IAC looked at the Commercialization of Autonomous Vehicles & STEM. Prominent supporters of the IAC, and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics curriculum in general, joined a panel at CES 2021 to discuss the business, finance, entrepreneurship, education, and diversity of talent needed to drive the autonomous vehicle market, and roles for the public, academic, and private sectors.

Mitchell and Thrun were joined by Lyn St. James, famed racecar driver and advocate for women in business & STEM; Anthony Salcito, Worldwide Education, Microsoft; Reilly Brennan, founding General Partner, Trucks Venture Capital; and Dave Roberts, CIO, State of Indiana.

They represented just a few of the many AIC sponsors: ADLINK Technology, Ansys, Aptiv, AutonomouStuff, Bridgestone, Clemson University’s International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR), Dallara, Indiana Economic Development Corp., Microsoft, New Eagle, PWR, RTI, Schaeffler, and Valvoline. Over the past few months, some of those companies have shared details on their involvement.

 

Simulation by Ansys

As the exclusive simulation sponsor of the IAC, Ansys is providing free access to products in its Ansys Autonomy suite—enabling students to develop and refine automated driving software for the modified Dallara IL-15 vehicle and validate it virtually in a closed-loop simulation environment. The company also hosted the first of four events designed to train students on AV simulation software and prepare teams for the final race. It says the challenge includes hackathons and educational workshops, the world’s first simulated high-speed self-driving car race, and a head-to-head final competition reaching speeds of up to 200 mph (320 km/h).

As students master Ansys solutions throughout the competition, they will also develop highly sought-after skills in the workplace.

“We’re challenging students to develop autonomous vehicle software that can operate at speeds of up to 200 mph,” said Matt Peak, Managing Director of ESN. “We approached Ansys because that would simply be an impossible task without the best simulation software available. Through Ansys’ virtual environment, student teams can quickly design, test, iterate, and validate their software with high fidelity in time for the final race.”

A shared goal of the IAC and Ansys is to enable the development of software that can overcome existing barriers to help speed the commercialization of fully autonomous vehicles and enhance ADAS in cars under human control.

“For more than 100 years, IMS has served as a breeding ground for technological advancements,” said Eric Bantegnie, Vice President and General Manager at Ansys. “We’re continuing that legacy by putting Ansys Autonomy, the most comprehensive autonomous vehicle simulation software on the market, into the hands of students who will ultimately play a vital role in bringing safe, autonomous vehicles to public roadways.”

 

Model-based development by New Eagle

Mechatronic control system engineering company New Eagle has become a vehicle sponsor of the IAC.

“New Eagle’s Raptor platform will give IAC university teams power, flexibility, and speed as they engineer the cars,” said ESN’s Peak.

The company offers a range of autonomous solutions, including drive-by-wire kits for production vehicles, enabled by the Raptor platform. The suite of embedded model-based development tools combines the speed and flexibility of rapid prototyping with the low cost and high quality of rugged, high-volume production ECUs and displays.

“We’ve done some great work on autonomous vehicles with AutonomouStuff and ADLINK, and we’re looking forward to working with IAC’s other sponsors to stretch the limits of autonomy,” said Rich Swortzel, New Eagle’s President. “Our Raptor tools and hardware are a natural fit for IAC teams that need to innovate—quickly—to win the challenge.”

 

Edge artificial intelligence by ADLINK

ADLINK Technology will provide university teams with rugged edge AI devices, technical resources, and engineering support for in-vehicle computing and validation. The teams will also benefit from the company’s open-source software support for ROS-based middleware including optimizing Open Robotics’ ROS 2 with Eclipse Foundations’ Cyclone DDS middleware integrated with the IAC vehicle sensor suite and Ansys’ VRExperience simulation suite.

“One of the prominent barriers to automated vehicle commercialization the IAC addresses is solving ‘edge-case’ scenarios—challenges that occur only at an extreme operating parameter, such as avoiding unanticipated obstacles at high speeds while maintaining vehicular control,” said ESN’s Peak. “We welcome the expertise that ADLINK can provide to the university teams in applying real-world edge computing solutions to AV scenarios.”

Teams will use modified Dallara IL-15 racecars fitted with ADLINK’s DLAP-8000 series robot controller for in-vehicle computing. The supplier’s rugged, edge AI system has been tested with open-source autonomous driving software and middleware platforms including Autoware.Auto; Open Robotics ROS 2; and Eclipse iceoryx, Zenoh, and Cyclone DDS.

“ADLINK is committed to making AI accessible to industry, and autonomous driving is a key application,” said Joe Speed, Field CTO, Global Partners,  ADLINK. “We’re depending on the next generation of technology innovators to continue pushing the boundaries of autonomy. The IAC is the perfect platform to bring together education and industry to make high-performance autonomous driving a reality.”

 

By-wire tech from Schaeffler

Schaeffler, through its Schaeffler Paravan Technologie unit, will supply its patented Space Drive drive-by-wire technology. Originally developed by Paravan GmbH to provide mobility solutions for the disabled, the technology features steer-by-wire functionality, which enables safe and reliable vehicle steering by purely electric means. It eliminates the need for a steering wheel, steering column, and associated mechanical linkages—making it a key technology for autonomous driving. Meeting ISO 26262 ASIL-D with the appropriate functional redundancy is a basic requirement, Space Drive is said to be the only system of its kind approved for public road use in several countries, and 18 U.S. states.

“Developing autonomous driving technologies and pioneering new approaches to motion are part of our company’s DNA,” said Roland Arnold, Founder and Owner of Paravan GmbH and CEO of Schaeffler Paravan Technologie GmbH & Co. KG. “This dovetails perfectly with the Indy Autonomous Challenge’s mission to inspire the next generation of STEM talent to ‘imagine, invent and prove a new generation of automated vehicle software.’”

The Space Drive system support will include the necessary hardware, software, training, and support for all of the collegiate teams. The driving and steering system, a three-stage, multi-redundant motor driver and control system, will serve as the central control unit for converting the digital signals into actual driving signals on the road. It has already proven itself under the toughest conditions on the racetrack, albeit with a human behind the wheel.

 

Tires (and vision) by Bridgestone

Bridgestone will work closely with the IAC and its teams on a collective vision to push the boundaries of self-driving car technology and increase public awareness of the impact that automation can have on society. This mission closely aligns with Bridgestone’s strategic shift to evolve its focus beyond tires to provide sustainable mobility and advanced solutions that create new value for its customers and society.

“Bridgestone is committed to collaborating with innovative partners to pioneer active, intelligent, and digitally integrated technologies that improve the way people move, live, work and play,” said Paolo Ferrari, President and CEO, Bridgestone Americas. “The Indy Autonomous Challenge is a groundbreaking event bringing young engineering minds and industry leaders together to deliver the next generation of autonomous technology, and Bridgestone is proud to be part of this effort to move the world ahead.”

In alignment with its “Our Way to Serve” global corporate social responsibility commitment, the company says it continues to support events that drive sustainable innovation in mobility while helping to develop future engineering talent. In addition to its partnership with the IAC, the company has served as title sponsor and tire supplier for the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge since 2013 and extended its agreement through 2030.

 

The competitors

The IAC was officially kicked off in May 2020 with a virtual hackathon hosted by Ansys. During the first hackathon, students were given free access to Ansys software to build a new generation of automated vehicle software. The challenge will end with a final race in October 2021, but there will be numerous hackathons until then, and a simulation race in which Ansys will award $150,000 in prizes to the top finishers.

If you are interested in following or supporting any of the teams, click on the links below or visit https://www.indyautonomouschallenge.com/teams for email contacts: