ITU’s Autonomous Ground Vehicle Ayaz Achieves Second Place Globally
ITU’s autonomous ground vehicle ‘Ayaz’ ranked second globally at a major international competition in Detroit, USA, showcasing advanced navigation and AI capabilities.
Istanbul Technical University (ITU) student team RAKE has secured second place worldwide with their autonomous ground vehicle named ‘Ayaz’ at a competition held in Detroit, Michigan, USA. The event featured 28 teams from 6 countries, showcasing advancements in autonomous vehicle technology.
Autonomous Navigation and Task Completion
In the prestigious international competition, recognized as a leader in the field of autonomous vehicles, ‘Ayaz’ successfully completed assigned tasks. The vehicle demonstrated critical capabilities including obstacle detection, route planning, autonomous navigation, and task execution in challenging environments.
The ITU RAKE Team’s ‘Ayaz’ vehicle garnered high scores from the jury for its performance. This achievement placed the team as the world’s second-best in the competition.
Development Process and Future Goals
ITU RAKE Team Captain Ahmet Emre Aktaş stated that the development of ‘Ayaz’ began approximately one year prior. The project focused on enhancing autonomous algorithms, building upon previous work with search and rescue robots.
Aktaş explained that a prototype vehicle named ‘Ayaz’ was initially developed to refine their software and autonomous algorithms. The team comprises students from various engineering disciplines including electronics, mechanics, organization, and software, all from ITU.
Having previously participated in domestic competitions with different vehicles, the team’s participation in the US competition marked their debut with ‘Ayaz’. Aktaş expressed immense pride in representing Turkey and ITU on a global stage and achieving second place.
The team is now shifting its focus to aerial vehicles, aiming to develop an integrated autonomous search and rescue system. This system envisions ground and air vehicles communicating to conduct operations collaboratively.
Aktaş further elaborated on the use of artificial intelligence algorithms, where the vehicle’s onboard computer is trained to identify obstacles and differentiate between navigable and non-navigable paths. The AI enables the vehicle to autonomously determine its route.
The future aerial component will initially scan disaster areas to detect hazards and living beings, transmitting a map to the ground vehicle. The ground vehicle will then autonomously navigate a safe route to reach individuals in need.
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