Sting Racing: The Vehicle STING 1

 

Sting Racing selected a Porsche Cayenne, designated Sting 1, as the base vehicle for its entry in the Urban Design Challenge. The high-end SUV comes from the factory with a significant degree of automation and computer control already built in. Most of the primary and secondary controls can be accessed through factory-installed, integrated CAN networks. In addition, its standard air-conditioning package is adequate to cool the computers that areinstalled on board to operate the vehicle.

Sting 1 has been retrofitted for complete computer control of steering, throttle and brakes as well as secondary systems such as lights and windshield wipers. The retrofit was performed by EMC.

The vehicle is controlled by eight dual Pentium computers installed in the trunk space and they are all running Ubuntu Linux.

For navigation, tracking other vehicles and situation assessment, the car is equipped with Novatel GPS sensors, an inertial package (IMU), six cameras, 9 laser scanners (Riegl & SICK LMS) and 7 22 GHz radar units (EATON).

Sting 1 conforms to Challenge vehicle requirements:

• SUV-size vehicle, preferably stock (Porsche Cayennem, 2006 model)
• Meets California emission standards
• Weighs between 2,000 and 30,000 pounds
• Fully autonomous operation
• Equipped with warning light, audible alarm, blinkers and brake lights

Sting 1 meets Challenge performance requirements:

• Maximum speed of 30 mph
• Capable of emergency stops within 20 m
• Maintains a 1-5 m distance from other vehicles
• Stops within 1 meter of stop signs and street crossing lines

In addition, during testing and in preparation for the the race the vehicles chase car isequipped with a manually operated pause and stop system that can be engaged in case of an emergency.