TII’s Autonomous Robotics Research Center (ARRC) joined forces with Team EURORACING – in line with TII’s sponsorship of the team – and marked an impressive participation at the celebrated racetrack of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) in the United States of America on 23 October. Team EURORACING performed creditably and notched up record speeds of 227 km per hour at the end of the main race, despite a bug in the system that saw it miss the opportunity to win the inaugural edition of the Indy Autonomous Challenge.
A team from TII’s Autonomous Robotics Research Center (ARRC) worked alongside Team EURORACING over several months in assembling the cutting-edge vehicle fitted out with autonomous software that ran the race – all the while obtaining the relevant knowledge and skills to champion robotics racing.
The Indy Autonomous Challenge, a US$1.5 million university prize competition to win the world’s first head-to-head, high-speed autonomous race at the renowned track in the US, has already become a must-attend event for motorsport enthusiasts. The first-ever edition witnessed autonomous vehicles challenging one another in a high-speed race event. Some 21 universities from nine countries formed nine teams to compete and demonstrate cutting-edge autonomous technology at the Indy Autonomous Challenge (IAC). TII’s participation aligned with its ongoing partnerships with the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (UNIMORE), University of Pisa (UNIPI), and the ETH Zürich – Polish Academy of Sciences.
Dr Najwa Aaaraj, Acting Chief Researcher of ARRC, said the sponsorship of Team EURORACING offered TII an opportunity to showcase its ambitions in the emerging autonomous robotics field and enabled TII and ARRC to advance the performance of autonomous robots, raise the bar in autonomous vehicle safety and challenge the current state-of-the-art in robotics.