Self-Driving Vehicle by FIRST alumni

[lemiant]

Recently, I got a chance to be a part of something really cool that would never have been possible without my participation in FIRST, and I wanted to share that with you guys! Myself and another FIRST alumnus, @Michael Skupien, built a self-driving shuttle this summer, and it got featured on the news!
You can see the clip on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/vardenlabs/...5940748912375/

If you want to see inside our build process you can like our facebook page, where we share lots of details about how the shuttle works: https://www.facebook.com/vardenlabs


Combined we've been in FIRST for 13 seasons as both students and mentors, and currently mentor while in university. That experience has been invaluable in helping us handle all the programming, designing, organizing and machining, required to build a self-driving vehicle in just 5 weeks.

One more example of the cool stuff FIRST teaches you how to do,

- Alex

[GeeTwo]

Please bear with a non-facebook dinosaur.

Is this essentially a rather large golf cart with solar panels and an autonomous drive capability? I do see a steering wheel, so I'm guessing that the passengers at least have "override" capability. I guess my real question comes down to asking for your definition of "self-driving" with particular emphasis on "what does this system do that a traditional golf cart does not do?"

[asid61]

Very neat! Are you planning on being able to navigate traffic with this, or are you hoping to do something else with it?

[Ryan_Todd]

Here's their full website:
http://vardenlabs.com/

And a snippet from their front page to summarize the product and its business proposition:

While autonomous cars driving on your average highway are probably 10 years away, the same monumental advances in computing and sensor technology have made simpler autonomous vehicles possible today. We are developing a fully autonomous electric shuttle which will bring effortless transportation to campuses around the world.

People in all walks of life are in need of a new form of transportation for short distance trips. On corporate campuses employees avoid travelling between buildings because it is too much of a hassle. At universities planners have to limit expansion because students cannot get around on foot. In retirment communities residents are forced to move from their private residences to nursing homes when they lose their driver's license, because they have no way to travel to basic ammenities. At Varden Labs we are creating the solution to these transportation problems and more.

(As an aside, they should probably run a spellcheck on that front page)

Also, @GeeTwo: looks like that's not a solar panel on top, just a custom roof with their logo on it. Not sure if there was any particular reason not to simply modify the original roof, except to provide a more sturdy mounting location for that LIDAR (or whatever it is) on top.