Cal Poly Design Team to Represent North America
at International Vehicle Safety Competition in June
SAN LUIS OBISPO – A multidisciplinary engineering student design team from Cal Poly is heading to France this summer.
The Cal Poly team will represent North America at the International Collegiate Student Safety Technology Design Competition. The competition focuses on enhancing auto safety. Three teams from North America, two from Asia and three from Europe will compete at the finals in Lyon, France.
The Cal Poly students developed a pre-crash sensing and automated braking system using a custom-made test cart, a laser range finder and an ultrasound sensor.
The U.S. Department of Transportation chose the Cal Poly team and their rig in March based on the team's work, presentation, and a demonstration of the test vehicle that anticipates and reacts to collisions.
The Cal Poly team's achievement represents three years of work by 16 students from mechanical, electrical, and computer engineering programs. “This competition provided an exciting opportunity for students from multiple disciplines to combine ongoing research activities in vehicle sensing,” says faculty advisor Peter Schuster.
The mechanical engineering team includes faculty advisors Peter Schuster from Atascadero and Charles Birdsong from San Luis Obispo. Students include seniors Danny Murphy from Arnold, D.J. Parsons from Cameron Park, Justin Carpenter from Auburn, and Duane Howard from San Luis Obispo.
In 2004-05, three students worked to identify, collect and perform baseline tests on a variety of exterior vehicle sensors. During 2005-06, eight students performed testing with LIDAR and RADAR sensors, developed sensor-filtering algorithms, and designed and built a mobile test vehicle for evaluating sensor performance.
Over summer 2006, two students refined the sensor processing algorithms, and during the 2006-07 academic year, the team of four students completed the integration of the sensor algorithms with the mobile test vehicle.
The result of this ongoing research and development is a vehicle that demonstrates autonomous warning, braking, and simulated airbag deployment.
Schuster, an associate professor of mechanical engineering, is proud of his team’s success: “The students worked hard at integrating many mechanical and electrical systems to create a fully functional test and demonstration vehicle showcasing crash avoidance technologies,” he said. “They deserve this award.”
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