FS-AI - FORMULA STUDENT ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

FS-AI challenges university teams to build and develop the driving systems to run a fully autonomous vehicle.

Teams compete in a trio of static events similar to the main FS competition, Design and Business Plan Presentation but with Cost & Manufacturing replaced by a Real-World Autonomous event where teams must demonstrate their understanding and practical solutions for the integration of autonomous vehicles as a future transport solution. In addition, teams must complete a series of autonomous missions, again mirroring the main FS competition, with Acceleration, Skid Pad, Sprint Track Drive (Endurance) events. These demonstrate teams’ technical knowledge and understanding as well as the effectiveness of their autonomous driving systems.

In keeping with the main objectives of Formula Student as an educational engineering competition, the FS-AI competition provides a fantastic opportunity for the next generation of autonomous systems engineers to gain the skills and experience that are highly desired by those in industry.

Babcock International Group is the FS-AI partner. Steve Penver, Head of Data and Analytics, said: “Babcock is a technology-led business, and we’re delighted to be the first company supporting this event which also shows our commitment to STEM.

“Despite the challenges posed by COVID-19 these young engineers have shown real grit and determination as well as real-life engineering skills as they adapt to learning in a new environment. We look forward to supporting all the teams and wish them luck.”

We organise two different FS-AI competition classes: Automated Driving System (ADS) and Dynamic Driving Task (DDT).

ADS: Teams compete with an autonomous car that they have developed and built completely themselves, such as previous competition entries from Starkstrom Augsburg and Team Bath Racing Electric. This is intended for experienced, multi-disciplined teams who are either developing existing FS cars to have driverless capabilities or vehicles they are building from scratch.

DDT: Teams can borrow the Autonomous Driving Systems – Dedicated Vehicle  (ADS-DV), which has been developed exclusively for the FS-AI competition. The vehicle is supplied ‘autonomous systems ready’ so that teams may select their own controller and sensors. This option removes the requirement to design and manufacture a vehicle, leaving teams free to focus on developing their software.

FS-AI is part-funded by government’s £150 million CAM Pathfinder programme, in partnership with industry, as a key commitment within the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy and Advanced Manufacturing Sector Plan, to encourage and support the extraordinary innovation in UK engineering and technology, making the UK a world leader within the transport industries.