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UK £15, USA $30, EUROPE e22 The CEO of AutonomouStuff talks to Nick Flaherty about how the company is accelerating the adoption of driverless vehicles

The right stuff

hen the US is a key step forward for the roll-out of The different approach is highlighted Department of what the DoT calls highly automated by its involvement in the first track day Transport (DoT) vehicles, or those in which the vehicle for autonomous cars in June 2016, announced its can take full control of the driving task in with hobbyists and enthusiasts coming regulations for at least some circumstances. together to put the technology through its Wautonomous vehicles in September “I believe that autonomous vehicle paces (see sidebar: Track day). 2016, every car behind them was a technology is at a tipping point, and soon “We partner with the world’s best customer of one particular company – every vehicle on wheels will begin to technology providers,” Hambrick says. AutonomouStuff (AS). adopt it. We are in the unique position by “We pull together the best technologies “Our technology was front and centre being in the middle of the transformation that enable self-driving, including throughout the announcement, on of transportation,” Hambrick says. perception with , Lidar and vision the University of Michigan’s Mcity car He has taken a very different systems, GPS and IMU positioning, that was built by us and outfitted with approach from other companies to computing, actuation, software, our sensors,” says Bobby Hambrick, the development of technology for engineering services and more. AS has CEO of AS. “The rest of the cars in the autonomous vehicles. The company supplied components to more than 1600 background [from Carnegie Mellon started when Hambrick noticed a large customers worldwide.” University, MIT, Stanford, University of gap in the industry’s supply chain. He Its customers include those in the California Berkeley, University of Michigan realised that engineers developing automotive, military, mining, maritime, and and Virginia Tech Transportation systems in the robotics industry were agriculture sectors, as well as academia Institute] are also equipped with some having a hard time gaining access to and start-ups, which gives Hambrick type of technology from AS.” the technology needed to solve their a unique overview of the state of the The Federal Automated Vehicles Policy applications, so AS was born. technology. “Some of our customers

20 October/November 2016 | Unmanned Systems Technology Bobby Hambrick | In conversation

Track day

A track day in California brought together technology enthusiasts and start-ups to test out autonomous driving systems for the first time

AutonomouStuff (AS) was at the heart of the first autonomous car track day at Thunder Hill Raceway Park in Willows, California, earlier this year. AS had one of two vehicles that drove autonomously around the track, and was the only team driving 100% autonomously. Of the four teams with designated track time it was also the only team to complete a full-speed lap around the track, in its self-driving Lincoln MKZ. Companies at the track day included comma.ai, a start-up using Nvidia Autonomous vehicle technology is at a tipping point, according to technology to train its deep neural network and run the neural network that drives technology supplier AutonomouStuff the car. The company drove its Acura ILX and also had a wheego Whip electric vehicle on hand, using an Nvidia Drive PX card in the trunk. PolySync drove its Kia Soul, and is planning to run its advanced middleware have a very high level of capability of platform on a Drive PX. Tier-one component supplier Denso drove its Tesla Model S, integrating technology to enable their complete with Lidar sensors integrated into the side mirrors, while Audi drove its RS 7 applications, while others need assistance ‘Audi piloted driving’ concept car, and Renovo Motors demonstrated its electric coupe. based on our expertise,” he says. One of the leading projects is the nuTonomy autonomous taxi fleet in Singapore, the first in the world to start This has led to Hambrick working development of autonomous systems. public trials (see page 26). “nuTonomy is with many of the leading autonomous “Otto was a customer of ours in the very advanced and is capable of doing car and truck developers, such as Otto, garage, and I was sitting down with amazing things,” Hambrick says. “We have Cruise and Ottomatika. [CEO] of Cruise Automation provided only the sensor hardware. It’s Carnegie Mellon University spun out to work out what he needed. Those an example of AS meeting the customer its autonomous systems expertise into companies went as fast as they did where they are and where they need help, Ottomatika, which last year was bought because of their amazing technology from supplying individual components to by car component supplier Delphi. and our ability to help them; nuTonomy kitting out entire vehicle platforms and Truck system developer Otto was is another of those companies.” providing reference software. launched earlier this year by an engineer Being independent is essential so “nuTonomy was specifically interested who had worked on Google’s self- that AS can work with the widest range in radar from Delphi and Lidar from driving car, and it was acquired by ride- of suppliers, says Hambrick. “We work Velodyne and IBEO. These products sharing company Uber in August 2016. with Nvidia, Qualcomm, Intel, NXP are chosen because they best fit the And Cruise Automation was bought by and Renesas, who are all aiming to application requirements of nuTonomy, General Motors this year for more than provide great solutions for automated as well as other customers.” $1 billion to accelerate the mainstream driving, but right now we maintain

Unmanned Systems Technology | October/November 2016 21 In conversation | Bobby Hambrick

our independence,” he says. “We have our own hardware partners but the Bobby Hambrick software is independent of hardware and middleware so that it can be interchangeable.” Bobby Hambrick set up As a result, Hambrick became the co- AutonomouStuff in 2010 in Morton, founder of a key software technology Illinois, shortly after the DARPA developer. PolySync, (formerly Harbrick Urban Challenge, to provide Technologies) was set up in 2013 to sensors, engineering services and develop middleware software using automated driving software. a technology called Data Distribution He was a co-founder of Service (DDS). DDS uses a publish- PolySync, formerly Harbrick subscribe model to act as the data Technologies, in 2013 with Josh backbone for all the different elements in Hartung. This start-up, in Portland, an autonomous vehicle. Oregon, was created to develop “PolySync abstracts the DDS with a an entire software platform to help standard API that extracts the sensor developers build, test and deploy data,” Hambrick says. It decouples automated vehicle applications code from hardware such as sensors, quickly. PolySync applications computers and actuators. To a PolySync are developed similarly to mobile application, Lidar points are just Lidar applications on iOS or Android, by points, no matter which sensor they came calling a set of well-defined and from, and the control commands are the standardised APIs. same for any vehicle. The company is also working on another software technology. “The Robot Operating System [ROS] is an flexible I/O with multiple CAN cards smaller electric vehicle that includes open source product based on Linux and Ethernet cards for research,” says components from us that we already had, which is designed for general robotics Hambrick. It is the I/O requirements that and our autopilot runs on both ROS and applications and is a very useful tool for are challenging, he says – the embedded PolySync,” says Hambrick. researchers’ automation projects,” says computer boards need to have as much “What we are providing with these Hambrick. “In fact, I consider our team high-speed I/O as possible to cope with platforms is the ability to figure out at AS to be experts when it comes to optical cameras, radar and Lidar. what the customer wants to do with it,” integrating and building applications on “It’s really the I/O compatibility that he says. “We provide all the interface top of ROS. is essential, so we are looking to re- information while we are building the “A lot of our automation applications purpose boards with a limited set of system, and if they prepare their software are independent of middleware, sensors,” he says. correctly they can show up on our allowing our customers to choose The remaining key element for AS is doorstep and have it running on an whichever middleware is familiar to the actuator system that turns existing autonomous car on day one. That used them. Also, there are several commercial vehicles into a self-driving version. to take a decade.” middleware companies who have built This includes a throttle and brake-by- Looking forward, the challenge is in ROS compatibility layers to port ROS wire controller module, a steering and bringing all the elements together as the code over to a more robust and proven gearshift-by-wire controller module as cost of the components falls. “In the future, commercial product.” well as a power distribution panel and a all the sensors will be commoditised,” AS also developed its own computing centre console switch box. says Hambrick. “There will be perhaps 100 platform, called Lumina, with a This comes with a 600 W true sine Lidar manufacturers in five years’ time, and manufacturing partner, based on Intel’s wave inverter for ac power loads and every silicon manufacturer will be making Core i7 processors that runs the Ubuntu the wiring harnesses for all hardware Lidar chips. Linux operating systems and ROS so that modules, linking to the I/O on the “So what we are doing is connecting to engineers can use the most suitable tools embedded PC. these companies and building software to to build, test and simulate their systems. “Our Ford Fusion is just launching, enable Lidar data processing and software “The reason we use Lumina is the and we have a Lincoln MKZ, plus a that is independent of the sensor.”

22 October/November 2016 | Unmanned Systems Technology Space systems Hirth’s two-stroke magic The all-seeing eye The ExoMars autonomous mission State-of-the-art vision sensors for unmanned craft Inside a hi-tech UAV powerplant Ultralight rotary power Real-time operating systems Driverless 4WD Austro Engine’s aero solution MIRA’s autonomous Land Rover Cable assembly Analysing the development issues Danielson diesel Advanced wiring analysed Inside the new generation LAUNCH Autonomous mining Scion What’s driving the technology? ISSUE SA-400 Winter ’14 Autonomous helicopter technology

Penguin ISSUE 3 UAV Dossier ISSUE 2 Summer ’15 Secrets of a record-breaking platform revealed Spring ’15

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