REU Site: Cognitive and Autonomous Test (CAT) Vehicle

该站点由国防部与NSF REU项目合作资助。该项目的动机是让学生参与与自动地面车辆相关的广泛研究课题和应用。REU网站为10名学生提供为期3年的暑期10周的研究经验。参与者与研究生在自主系统和认知无线电领域进行合作研究。项目方法对参与项目采用螺旋开发过程，这使参与者能够看到如何分解研究问题，并且还使项目的每一年都建立在以前的项目之上。该过程侧重于需求验证和测试，从而实现与认知和自动测试车辆（CAT Vehicle）的安全交互。CAT Vehicle是一款全尺寸的福特翼虎（Escape）机器人汽车，它采用了各种传感器，可以用来让汽车自动驾驶，也可以在汽车处于人类控制之下时用于测试新技术或传感算法。参与者有望在认知无线电、无线通信、自主控制系统和基于模型的设计等领域获得经验，并产生研究成果和出版物。REU网站将对参与的学生产生重大影响，他们将获得撰写学术出版物，准备和演讲以及阐明他们引人注目的研究问题及其解决方案的经验。该项目预计将产生能够增加所执行工作可见性的工件，包括描述他们的项目旅程的视频，一旦参与者回到他们的家庭机构，就可以广泛传播参与者的贡献。参与者将获得设计像汽车一样普及的系统组件的专业知识。这样的经验和动力是参与者今后继续探索智能电网、下一代无线网络、替代能源和其他对社会产生影响的问题所需要的。REU Site项目网站（http://reu.ece.arizona.edu/）提供了更多信息。

This site is co-funded by the Department of Defense in partnership with the NSF REU program. The motivation for this project is to engage students with the wide range of research topics and applications related to autonomous ground vehicles. The REU Site provides research experience for 10 students for 10 weeks in the summer for 3 years. The participants are engaged in collaborative work with graduate students doing research in the fields of autonomous systems and cognitive radio. The project approach utilizes a spiral development process for participant projects, which enables participants to see how a research problem can be decomposed, and also enables each year of the project to build upon previous projects. The process focuses on requirements verification and testing, and thus enables a safe interaction with the Cognitive and Autonomous Test Vehicle (CAT Vehicle). The CAT Vehicle is a full-sized Ford Escape robotic car that employs various sensors that can be used to make the car drive autonomously, or that can be used when the car is under human control to test new techniques or sensing algorithms. Participants are expected to gain experience and produce research results and publications in areas related to cognitive radio, wireless communications, autonomous control systems, and model-based design, among others.The REU Site will have a significant impact on the participating students who will gain experience in writing academic publications, preparing and giving presentation, and in articulating the story of their compelling research problem and its solution. The project is expected to produce artifacts that will increase visibility of the performed work, including a video describing their project journey that lends itself to broad dissemination of a participant's contribution once they return to their home institution. Participants gain expertise in what it means to design components of a system as pervasive as an automobile. Such experience and motivation is needed for participants to later go on to explore problems in the smart grid, next-generation wireless networks, alternative energy, and other issues that have impact on a societal-scale. The REU Site project web site (http://reu.ece.arizona.edu/) provides additional information.