Autonomous parking using an FPGA

Abstract

In the automotive industry, autonomous vehicles are said to be the next big thing. Currently, this makes research and funding concerning autonomous vehicles at an all-time high. The technology is rapidly emerging, but some large problems and obstacles still exist. The aim of this project was to understand the basic needs and challenges concerning autonomous vehicles, with special attention to the car parking problem. While doing so, a car-like mobile robot was constructed and equipped with the necessary hardware to create an autonomous vehicle testing platform. To control the car-like mobile robot, a digital design approach was taken using a Field-Programmable Gate Array. This was done as an attempt to investigate the suitability and the challenges involved with the design for such a system. A complete framework for a car-like mobile robot was successfully set up. The framework incorporates all actuation hardware, proximity sensors, controller with external memory and a camera. Different parking algorithms were successfully implemented.