I Made a Self Driving FPV RC Car

Over the past 4 months, I built a self-driving racing car, 1/10th scale, that is capable of racing over 40mph in my university's hallways. I implemented this using SLAM, particle filters, and pure pursuit algorithms. Hope you enjoy it!
Part 2: • I Made a Self Driving ...
The original build is called F1TENTH, you can find more information here f1tenth.org/ if you want to build one yourself. They organize a few competitions a year, and I'm planning on participating in one in the upcoming months.
Also, I'm looking for a Fall 2023 software internship, so if you're hiring, would love to get in touch. I built this entire self-driving car myself, imagine what I can do for your company 👀
Link to my code: github.com/CL2-UWaterloo/f1te...
My notes: stevengong.co/notes/F1TENTH
Credits
Thank you to Venkat’s group at Clemson University for providing the F1TENTH vehicle: sites.google.com/view/armlab-...
My professor’s lab: yashpant.github.io/group/
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MY SOCIALS
📸 Instagram: / stevengongg
📱 Twitter: / stevengongg
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Subscribers at the time of uploading: 541
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ABOUT ME
I'm Steven, a university student currently studying Software Engineering at the University of Waterloo. I started this KZbin channel to share my love for learning and engineering with the world. I am passionate about everything ranging from electronics, CAD, control theory, programming, 3D printing, physics, to design. Consider subscribing if you would like to follow my journey and learn alongside me as a student of the universe!
#stevengong #fpv #selfdrivingcar #fpvracing #rccar

[@DVDplayerz]

I like the idea of "Quiet study space" with an RC car zooming by blasting a laser and smashing into most walls 7:10

[@chips7049]

bro the rc car is ding dong diching💀💀

[@punchyscyllarus565]

"stephen please"

[@iftekharuddin]

lmao

[@SianaGearz]

Well that's perfect because people in that space can't complain, because they have to stay silent in there.

[@Teleportcamera]

02:12 you perfectly captured and displayed that feeling that a programmer feels when his super complicated code actually works

[@NopeSecret]

Code Monkey get up get coffee Code Monkey go to job Code Monkey have boring meeting With boring manager Rob Rob say Code Monkey very dilligent But his output stink His code not “functional” or “elegant” What do Code Monkey think? Code Monkey think maybe manager want to write god damned login page himself Code Monkey not say it out loud Code Monkey not crazy, just proud Code Monkey like Fritos Code Monkey like Tab and Mountain Dew Code Monkey very simple man With big warm fuzzy secret heart: Code Monkey like you Code Monkey hang around at front desk Tell you sweater look nice Code Monkey offer buy you soda Bring you cup, bring you ice You say no thank you for the soda cause Soda make you fat Anyway you busy with the telephone No time for chat Code Monkey have long walk back to cubicle he sit down pretend to work Code Monkey not thinking so straight Code Monkey not feeling so great Code Monkey like Fritos Code Monkey like Tab and Mountain Dew Code Monkey very simple man With big warm fuzzy secret heart: Code Monkey like you Code Monkey like you a lot Code Monkey have every reason To get out this place Code Monkey just keep on working See your soft pretty face Much rather wake up, eat a coffee cake Take bath, take nap This job “fulfilling in creative way” Such a load of crap Code Monkey think someday he have everything even pretty girl like you Code Monkey just waiting for now Code Monkey say someday, somehow Code Monkey like Fritos Code Monkey like Tab and Mountain Dew Code Monkey very simple man With big warm fuzzy secret heart: Code Monkey like you ^ Teenage me programming all night listening to this on repeat making proxy hacks using .NET to abuse MMOS and make $$$$ ^ xD Oh the early 2000s ♥

[@lenn15]

I'm a full time programmer and I'm this excited even when easy code works that didn't work for a long time bc I was stupid.

[@SVT000]

Facts

[@SamCris]

I just got this feeling a minute ago. Always a very satisfying feeling

[@fmobus]

The RC car knows where it is at all times. It knows this because it knows where it isn't. By subtracting where it is from where it isn't, or where it isn't from where it is (whichever is greater), it obtains a difference, or deviation. The guidance subsystem uses deviations to generate corrective commands to drive the RC car from a position where it is to a position where it isn't, and arriving at a position where it wasn't, it now is. Consequently, the position where it is, is now the position that it wasn't, and it follows that the position that it was, is now the position that it isn't.

[@val-dj8qt]

Your a genius man

[@HeavyDuty240]

But because of the coder made a small mistake it does this whole thing backwards

[@highqualityorangejuice420]

​@val are you sarcastic cos I hope so

[@realgsdontdie5095]

It knows where it is because that's where it is.

[@josephheath4417]

@@HeavyDuty240 😢

[@nathanaelvance4046]

Hey, quick suggestion! I noticed the vehicle was tending to take corners too fast, resulting in it having to realign itself back onto the determined path on the next straight. To improve efficiency on your turns I would add a deceleration/ braking element to that portion of the path. By determining the maximum velocity your vehicle can take that 180 degree turn at without skidding or flipping (Ekin, centrifugal < Fm, gravitational Force on vehicle?) then you can create a brake slope starting at the point of highest centrifugal force (1/4 PI of turn circle, as the 180 degree turn is a 1/2 PI and you want the center of this section as it is the outer most point of the turn) and then setting up brake points along the run-up to the turn that will reach your target speed (the maximum achievable corner speed) by the time the car hits that outer most point in the turn. Then you could even reverse this brake slope on the tail end of the turn into an acceleration gradient returning the vehicle to it’s top speed for the straightaway. Just a thought though, I have no experience in any of this and I don’t know if this is even a feasible solution, just thought I’d throw the idea out there in case it’s worth anything!

[@hippopotamus86]

6:00, Love that the clock is just in time seek mode where it turns like that until it hits the correct time (radio controlled). Albeit sped up a bit.

[@BeeeHonest]

You are brilliant. Keep up the great work! PS love your recording "studio"!

[@dylanopperman6037]

Would love to see how you built and programmed everything.

[@hasanthesyrian_]

The vehicle is prebuilt from what I understood. It includes a LiDAR scanner and an NVIDIA Jetson Nano microprocessor mounted on it from what I can see. The code is also in the description.

[@velotome7205]

From what we can see in the video, he used ROS and some of its software

[@leonripa8028]

@@hasanthesyrian_ looks like jetson xavier nx

[@ryansunnnboii7535]

I don't want to see that

[@MG-pw7jp]

As a software development student, I can confirm this guy is leagues ahead of a normal programmer.

[@ramblerssafarnaama4181]

Very nice video and thanks for showing the hallways of UW. It has been some years since I last went there. 👍

[@skaramicke]

That's awesome! Now make it want to explore unseen parts of the map so it can map whole buildings!

[@ptiwaridotin]

loved the whole videos, can't wait for more

[@talis1063]

Did very similar thing with a flying drone for a competition. Covid happened and before the next time, the challenge was removed. Didn't even get to test out my latest ideas because I graduated and left the city. This video brought back the itch.

[@st0n3p0ny]

Jumps for alternate routes would be cool in a race. All you need is accel/decel to manage orientation. Accelerate brings the front end up, breaking lowers the nose so you can land flat.

[@dhonantarogundul1737]

I have the same assignment for final project in mobile robots last semester. Great job!

[@ParentsandProjects]

Impressive! Cool project SG!

[@mauriciofreitas9719]

Hello, amazing video, congratulations! I'm from Brazil, I work in a research center, I'm starting an auto AGV project and your video was recommended to me on YT. I continue to follow your work. success

[@sao_rav]

Great man! Great efforts.. like tremendous efforts!!

[@DonjiKong]

For part 2, please make both of them update their positions on the same minimap

[@QuesoDePalo]

Reminds me of my first big EE project on a team at DigiPen in 2003-2004!

[@clubcyberia8572]

rc and programming? heck yeah!! as a huge rc enthusiast, i love this! eventually I want to do the same with my rc car.

[@prettyboyjesse]

Great work man!

[@AerialWaviator]

Great insights into how challenging it is to make an RC car automatous. I noticed is at higher speeds the car seemed to overshoot it’s intended path when cornering. Not sure if this a latency between the car knowing it’s position and when steering response is applied, or something else (like a slippery floor). An easy fix is to base the speed of the car on how straight the upcoming path is, this way it will slow as an expected curve in its path tightens. This should then allow for higher top speed in the straighter sections of the course. Thus an overall faster speed on laps. ;) Look forward to when having multiple cars racing, and all the improvements being worked on!

[@stevengongg]

yea, it's the slippery floor. Working on a 2nd video using racing lines, hoping to release it soon!

[@ilanlee3025]

Great vid, immediate subscription

[@RossCandler69]

Very nice keep up the good work

[@RC_Ira]

Amazing robocar! Excellent work!😃👍

[@firewater586]

This is cool! Subscribed.

[@mikesell123]

very awesome speed montage and video! you can go way faster by teaching it to break early, then accelerate once it passes the apex of each turn/corner. maintain the momentum

[@ConsultingjoeOnline]

Great project and video!

[@drewski6843]

Wow, that's awesome. You should develop one for the outdoors to withstand the elements aka a home security system. If it's possible. Great job btw.

[@mistakek]

Thicker shock oils and firmer springs would make it handle better on a smoother surface as that's probably setup for offroad surface. More tweaking to increase some steering would help also. You can tune the car to work better and go around for a faster track time.

[@unknowntech7]

Amazing work!

[@rangarajan1636]

WOW Just keep up the good work bro!!!!

[@Reggiebphoto]

Great work! And love the Initial D music at the end, haha.

[@bloko3683]

Nice video. I'm waiting for the next one

[@rickb06]

When you said LIDAR, I thought you said lighter, and immediately I imagined a self driving tank with a flamethrower, haha. I loved your video! With this kind of epic DIY videos, you learn a lot about something you'd likely never learn otherwise and I'm sure it gave you some mad respect for the Tesla FSD developers and what all they do!

[@pedapudibhargav]

Great work!!!!

[@evren.builds]

Thanks for sharing the code

[@thetastefultoastie6077]

Compute the sum of the curvature of the N points ahead of the vehicle. Perhaps extend the lookahead by a factor of the current velocity. Then use the result as an input to a throttle PID feedback control loop. Low curvature should result in a high target velocity, and high curvature in a low target velocity. This should make the vehicle decelerate sharply in anticipation of upcoming corners and keep a tighter racing line. I would compute the curvature like this: let summed_angle be 0 loop 0...N let vector1 be point[index + 1] - point[index] let vector2 be point[index + 2] - point[index] normalize vector1 normalize vector2 let cos_angle be vector1 dot vector2 let angle be inverse cosine of cos_angle let summed_angle be summed_angle + angle end loop return summed_angle

[@Cornusse]

That insane ! Keep going :)

[@mahdizayet4011]

Keep it up bro this is so amazing 🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@RelativeWind]

Bruh this channel gonna be huge!!

[@mas0n25]

Cant wait to see ur self driving racers!

[@LuisYax]

great work!

[@Kel_Dronie11]

Omg that's amazing!!

[@tigermarcel1997]

man that is super dope

[@rainluo4831]

YES steven so cool. Such role model

[@srijitoghosh5566]

Finally something, I'd been longin' for long... I can't jus' thank ya enough!

[@docfr3sh]

so rad! great work. looking forward to the race version 🔥🔥

[@MeeKaaH]

wow so cool, nice job 🤜🤛

[@JabiloJoseJ]

wow this is really cool bro !!!!

[@Ryan-pm6ht]

Amazing stuff!

[@hfitfxhfhfufgugugu6589]

It was indeed very satisfying to watch.

[@Blowjin]

It's freakin awesome dude!

[@sfsfalls2311]

You are Awesome Guy

[@-Volvetus]

def needs more views

[@johnthompson4011]

Bro this looks cool Imma try too

[@neIgn]

very good topic. not many people share this automated mapping ros stuff

[@scottsrcshop]

Very impressive and inspiring stuff. 😮

[@jiegao3591]

the "I still wanted to give you guys a taste of how fast it could go" part reminded me of when I pressed W on my laptop to test the manual driving on my WRO car and it flew into a wall and turned itself off

[@PhilippHager-dm5yt]

This would be a great Setup for an AI-Based Driving FPV RC Car. Use a neural Network for the Controller-Points with Attributes like Speed, Brakes and Steering and let it develop with small changes in the Attributes to the wich Evolutionstage gets the best Laptime...

[@Lucas.Toledo]

that's so cool man

[@kklol07]

amazing!

[@geepytee]

Love when KZbin suggests me a UW project on my homepage

[@BDEvans]

Well done!

[@s21aboomar35]

Awesome ❤

[@mattloulou123123]

Nice job Steven

[@chaicracker]

Epic!

[@jeb123]

2:52 This music reminded me the FVDisco lol. Nice video btw.

[@Ikbeneengeit]

Nice job! Reminds me of late nights at the EE lab :)

[@stormriderfpv]

That's cool!

[@robinbrowne5419]

Awesome 👍

[@sophieyang2625]

THIS IS SO COOOOL

[@dimitrimoonlight]

Great job 👍

[@NopeSecret]

So essentially you design a vehicle that get inputs which are used to build a virtual environment. You then use this virtual environment to run simulations to train a model which you can apply to your vehicle and it will use the sensors and input methods to rebuild the virtual training environment at runtime allowing it to essentially operate in the real world. That seems like one of the most exciting industries to be getting into especially as someone interested in deep space exploration as AI seems to be the future to long term multi generation exploration missions which are going to become a thing in the not so distant future as we start to apply them to explore the remote ice moons in our solar system like Europa.

[@martylawson1638]

Afik one of the early autonomous cars had a fixed array of future paths (throttle and steering) and picked the one that best fit the desired trajectory.

[@aldrickpeter]

The Eurobeat was just 👌

[@kodizhuk]

nice work

[@ALXG]

Very nice! This is a perfect project for Machine Learning. There are youtube videos where ML gets used for race cars in a 2D video game that teaches itself how to drive. Your car can steer itself this is very cool. But it can teach itself how to steer itself. Just an idea for you.

[@GrahamHilton-lf5zp]

Hey, just saw this vid and had a laugh :) It was great. I did something similar for my master's but sadly, not as fast! I am now on a PhD research project on landmark-based nav with these things. It was great to see the enjoyment even when the expected did not happen, and BAM, hello, wall :) Great stuff. What are your next projects?

[@ArmanRC]

what a great project using rc cars

[@GraveUypo]

even with its super fast time to top speed, it's leave easily one second in those corners. i think it can do those flat out with an actual racing line

[@lakimakromedia]

GJ!!

[@ctoxyz]

very cool!

[@olleolio3155]

This video is really well made, keep going like this and you’ll have a million subscribers in no time. Awesome project!

[@christopherbryan7470]

He had subscribers in the 2k range and I just refreshed and it’s now in the 3k range, his video quality is superb, it’s just the timing between videos holding him back

[@fridofridolin]

@@christopherbryan7470 yep, and now, a week later it's 8.2K subs. A thousand per day, it's really nice to see! Good going, Steven! Also good editing.

[@christopherbryan7470]

7 days later, he’s almost at 9k

[@eduardsik6850]

Imagine, how awesome be, if you make a video series to follow and reproduce the entire process in to different robots.

[@doantuyendiy]

more vid about this project please

[@E.Danilov]

Nice!

[@PattyLustig]

i would have add that second circle like 3-4m in size that compares the direction of the car to next direction. If that difference is too large it slow the car down. But this already epic and more then i can do.

[@CallousCoder]

Very cool achievement! It’s definitely not trivial!❤❤❤

[@TechTipsUSA]

Could you put a bumper with pressure sensors on the car and tune your algorithm to be More or less carful in a turn depending on if it hit the wall or not?

[@junepark1003]

This was so fun to watch. Thank you for the inspiration! By the way, bathrooms, lol

[@atifrafique3764]

"if the surface was to change , u have to do tuning from start" Sun tzu the art of war

[@hnhl.1910]

Wao, speed is very fast, I really like it

[@markuscook5570]

Good work.

[@oscarzt1652]

as its a smooth floor and you had eurobeat playing, try tuning your program so the vehicle drifts around the corners!

[@soyilastore4399]

nice project

[@fadedchicken]

The pause on Soham's face killed me lmaoo

[@CenReaperYT.]

You need to count the torque of the steering system and time required to set wheels at a certain angle

[@VictorCampos87]

1:15 You just captured in film a phenomena that happens with every developer in this planet 🤣

[@peter360adventures9]

Awesome.