The Freescale Cup

(Bratislava, February 27th, 2012) At the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology of the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava there was an university contest The Freescale Cup for students of bachelors degree (1.-3. year). All registered teams received the cars equipped with the camera and PowerPC (Freescale Quorriva) processor. Its task was to drive as fast as possible on the track labeled black line. Cars supposed to be fully autonomous, without any human intervention after the start, rely just on information from its sensors. The track plan was unknown before the start. Total number of 7 teams did participate, 3 of them will represent the university in Prague on European contest.

Car of the Team 3,14.

About the contest

All teams were equipped with the same RC car chassiss with the DC drive motors on its back and servomotor controling the drive directions. As the camera was used the line camera TAOS TSL1401CL. Some teams also add more sensors (e.g. speed, acceleration, etc.).

Team equipment: car, processor and camera.

According the rules, it was necessary to use the controller board Qorivva TRK-MPC5604B with the powerfull 32-bit PowerPC processor. The cars were powered by the 2500mAh NiCd accumulator.

Detail of the controller.

The contest track consists of stright parts, curves and crosses. As a "bonus" there were added also a tunnel, retarders and hill. At the university contest we didn't use them at the end, as we want to give the chance to all teams to run at least one lap.

The contest track 2012.

Contest

For the university cup seven teams were registered:

Team T-1
- Norbert Gál
- Daniel Balogh
Team Tlis Monkeys
- Tereza Nováková
- Ján Jakubík
- Tomáš Pavlíček - team leader
Pure Drive
- Dominik Mäsiar
- Lukáš Minářík
- Ján Koscelanský
Team 3,14
- Andrej Bendžo
- Marek Lászlo
- Matúš Cimerman
West Coast Customs
- Pavol Dubeň
- Mirka Horvathová
- Boris Severský
AA Team
- Ľuboš Nedeliak
- Filip Švec
- Ondrej Groško
Realloc
- Andrej Železňák
- Miroslav Vojtuš
- Ondrej Galbavý

The contest day was very dramatic. Two teams were unable even to start due to the technical problems. Two another teams did masterfully run both laps and are qualified for the international contest in Prague (April 2012). But the third finalist was determined only after the additional laps (even the team did perform very well during the Open Door Day event a month ago).

Winner of the university cup - Pure Drive.

The contest consists of two qualifiyng rounds. Each team runs two laps, and the best time counted for result. Based on results of qualification teams competed in the final, where only one attempt was allowed.

Results of the university cup at the STU Bratislava.