The UTAC Challenge was held in the Parisian region in mid-May. Contestants had to come up with innovative solutions for making vehicles autonomous. Three vehicle architecture students from ENSTA Bretagne took part and won two prizes!
Organized by the UTAC* and French Society of Automotive Engineers (SIA), this competition seeks to "get the competing teams working on the full or partial design of a vehicle or functions related to autonomy and security.” With just four weeks to prepare, Brieuc, Nicolas and Alexi unveiled the results of the simulation project conducted during the last month of their engineering education at ENSTA Bretagne.
Ahead of the event, where the aim was to get round a highway route autonomously, they therefore developed functions related to adaptive cruise control, emergency braking, staying in lane and overtaking. After successfully completing the four evaluation rounds, the three students scooped two prizes: the prize for the best simulation and third place in the freeride category.
How did you feel during the different trials?
The trials went very well. We were all a bit stressed, as this was a first for us, but we had prepared well enough to put on a good performance.
What difficulties did you manage to overcome?
In addition to the technical challenges, one of the major difficulties associated with our project was the time factor: four weeks isn’t long at all to get everything done for a project like this one. We had to keep our systems simple yet efficient, and we reckon this really stood us in good stead.
What’s your impression of how this challenge went?
The jury commended the quality of our presentation and our speech for their technicity and simplicity. What’s more, we have learned a lot about issues related to autonomous vehicles – what is required to make a vehicle autonomous and what is called for by way of resources.
Whilst the three engineering students do not all see themselves ultimately working in the autonomous vehicle sector, they are unanimous in their belief that this challenge was an opportunity for them to gain new skills and confidence in their work – which will be invaluable to them in their future careers.
*UTAC: Technical Union for the Automobile, Motorcycle and Cycle Industries
