SAE Update - April 2022 - 31

Engineering software:
enabler of integrated mobility
TECH FOCUS:
SOFTWARE
Execution of the competition is not possible without
the use of engineering software tools. An SAE Level 4
autonomous vehicle is simply too complex to engineer
without using software to analyze sensors and to
develop perception and path-planning algorithms, to
name a few challenges. To illustrate Michigan Tech's
use of engineering software to assist in engineering an
autonomous vehicle, the inclusion of RADAR as an
object-detection system was created from a
combination pg collected data in ROSBag, simulated
data in MATLAB/Simulink, and the repurposing of
generic object-detection algorithms to use auto
coding to directly create software for implementation
onto the autonomous vehicle compute platform.
Multiple engineering software tools are employed to
successfully create and field the object-detection
algorithm, which is then paired with vehicle path
planning and dynamic control.
Like many other universities, Michigan Tech lacks a
dedicated, limited-access vehicle dynamics area or
skid pad to test and validate an autonomous vehicle's
control and capabilities. To get around this limitation,
Michigan Tech AutoDrive students use numerous
engineering software tools to create a road network
onto a parking lot to validate the vehicle's control and
navigation. Roadrunner was used to create the road
network and infrastructure, which was then exported
into Java OpenStreetMap, which was then in turn
exported into Gazebo to generate the maps necessary
for deployment to the test vehicle using ROS for
control. In this case, a series of software steps that are
part of the AutoDrive Challenge and made available to
the universities in the competition was used to
overcome a resource constraint and provide a solution
for validation of our competition vehicle.
Engineering software is vital to making complex
UPDATE
mobility solutions function.
Integration of engineering
software into engineering
curriculum is as vitally important
to engineering education as it is
to actually engineering the
products and solutions.
Michigan Tech is not a
microcosm relative to
engineering software and the
digital transformation happening
in engineering education. Nearly
all engineering curricula have, or
are in the process of
incorporating, more software
into courses, design projects,
and collegiate design
competitions. The success of
engineering education and our
" product " (more engineers) is
predicated on stronger
relationships with engineering
software companies and industry
to understand needs on digital
engineer training. The tools of
yesterday's engineer - slide rule,
pocket calculator, calipers,
mechanical pencil, etc. - have
been replaced by sophisticated
engineering software and
simulation conducted on tablets
and, ever more so, on the cluster
or cloud to create the optimal
electrified, automated, and
connected mobility products of
tomorrow. n
April 2022
31
SAE Update - April 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of SAE Update - April 2022
