The MXcarkit – from model car in a student competition to top tool for research and development

So far, the MXcarkits have become known through the VDI’s Autonomous Driving Challenge event and have performed well from the start. What leads to success for a competition among engineering students can work just as well in real research and development in the field of autonomous driving. This was also the opinion of Prof. Peter Pfeffer and Prof. Markus Krug. The result: the MXcarkits.

 

Fun becomes serious

The car kits are vehicles from model construction, but they do much more than just cope incredibly well with remote-controlled driving and parking situations. By installing a sensor system and a real-time computer, they have real computing power on board and can thus master driving situations automatically. In comparison to existing models on the market, they have been deliberately designed to be more dynamic with a very good value for money.

 

Little effort to get started

First of all, the effort to get the car running is much less than it would be when building the model car from scratch. The powerful NVIDIA board provides all access to sensors and actuators (steering and acceleration).

The Robot Operating System (ROS), which is well known in the robot development, allows easy handling of the software due to the given interfaces. A big advantage is that the sensor technology is exactly aligned and thus completely installed and adjusted. The MXcarkits can be used immediately for the development of automated driving manoeuvres. They can be applied at the stage between simulation and real driving test to gain valuable and needed results in advance before going to the test track.

The Supercup version currently has one of the strongest boards available on the market and with its powerful computing capacity allows testing of own complex software with elaborate AI algorithms.

Using the WLAN connection, all sensor data already can be analyzed while driving and the vehicle can be parameterized. Recordings of the driven manoeuvres for later analysis are also possible.

 

“Ready To Run” becomes “Ready To Let Run”!

The car kits are especially useful for deep learning experiments. Software tests with low safety risk can be carried out on model vehicles before it is used in real driving tests at scale 1:1. This saves time, conserves resources and improves safety.

 

Essential for every R&D department in business and research

Our car kits are an effective addition to research institutes and teaching programs of universities. For students in the field of driver assistance systems and autonomous driving, the model vehicles offer a quick start to get valuable results in a timely manner.

The rapid deployment of the car kits in R&D departments of OEMs and suppliers is also a great economic advantage. Employed Students can achieve valuable results with the car kits without having to perform driving tests with real vehicles, e.g. for their projects and thesis.

 

Your benefit from our concept

– Affordable and cost effective rapid prototyping

– Ready for immediate use as basic for own development

– Achieve valuable results effectively

– An indispensable intermediate step between simulation and real test

 

The detailed product description can be found here. For more information, please contact Anita Schuhwerk (anita.schuhwerk@mdynamix.de).