Interstellar, the Smart Car Team of HKUST Robotics Team, once again attained good results in the 10th National Undergraduate Students “Freescale Cup” Intelligent Car Competition (South China Region) held in Xiamen University from 18th to 21th of July. The team received three awards in total, including two Third Class Awards in Camera Group, and a Certificate of Merit in Electro-magnetic Group.

“Freescale Cup” Intelligent Car Racing has been organized by the semiconductor company Freescale for ten years. Over the years, it became a hot robotics event in Mainland China and aroused attention from students in related disciplines. It aimed to encourage students to apply circuit design and mechanics knowledge, embedded software programming skills and control theories in order to make the smart model cars race on a complicated track with intersections, ramps, obstacles and S-curves for the highest speed. Depending on the sensors used, the participants were divided into three categories, namely Camera Group, Optical Balance Group, and Electro-magnetic Group. Teams from the Camera Group relied on image processing through a camera while those from the Optical Balance Group were required to identify the track by processing analog data obtained from linear charge-coupled devices (CCDs) with an extra requirement to make the car stand up and race with only two wheels. Besides, the Electro-magnetic Group needed to build two cars with electromagnetic sensors to follow the racetrack through a signal wire located underneath the racetrack, and also to implement communication protocols to enable two cars running on the track together. All three categories were attempted by Interstellar members, which formed into five sub-teams, including two Camera teams, two Optical Balance teams and one Electro-magnetic team.

With the help of old members, potential members were interviewed and trained last Fall Semester, in which ten of them were selected to join the team with five returned members. Hence, the team was formed by 15 undergraduate students in total, who are mainly in Year 1 and Year 2. They came from different departments of the School of Engineering (SENG), with three from Department of Computer Science and Engineering, two from Computer Engineering Program, three from Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, two from Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and four are 4-year program freshmen. In addition, a student from the Department of Mathematics in the School of Science (SSCI) also joined the team. The students are supervised by Prof Tim Woo, Director of the Center for Global & Community Engagement (GCE). They started preparing for the competition in Spring Semester. It was glad that the students, despite competing with experienced Year 3 and Year 4 students from other universities, received three awards in the racing among 334 teams.

by Robotics Team member TSANG Lok Hay (SENG, Year 1)

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