Romanian Students: Third place at "Intelligent Car Racing" in Germany

Students from the Faculty of Automation and Computers at the "Gheorghe Asachi" Technical University in Iaşi (TUIAŞI) ranked third in the "NXP Cup 2018, Intelligent Car Racing" competition.

Competition took place in Erlangen, Germany and was attended by 40 students from 12 universities in Germany, Greece, Romania, Poland, Slovakia, Switzerland, Ukraine and Morocco. Romania was represented by two teams, from Iaşi and Craiova.

TUIAŞI team (students Teodor Pricop, Alex Aştefanii and Dimitrie Panainte) competed with a miniature intelligent car on an unknown route, similar to Formula One.

"Each team had three attempts for the machine to be able to cross in the shortest time a 160-square-mile circuit that contained intersections, curves of 90 degrees or bumps. For the construction of the autonomous car, students prepared themselves for four months, to identify the necesary components to complete the vehicle, its computer programming and to carry out all necessary tests", said Dr. Florin Pantilimonescu, coordinator of TUIAŞI students.

According to his statements, remote control of cars was forbidden and teams weren't able to operate changes during the race.

"This year took place the most evolved session. Miniature car has energetic autonomy and knows how to see the road alone, to interpret the route. Car of the future is the one who will walk alone on the street. Purpose of the competition is not necessarily to build intelligent cars, but to introduce certain subjects into the academic curriculum, so that students acquire the necessary knowledge to be able to work in companies that develop such projects", said Florin Pantilimonescu.

Source:RRA.Translated by Miruna Matei