REU Site: Cognitive and Autonomous Test (CAT) Vehicle

这个网站是由国防部与NSF REU计划共同资助的。这个项目的动机是让学生接触到与自动地面车辆相关的广泛的研究主题和应用。REU网站为10名学生提供为期3年的夏季10周的研究体验。参与者与在自主系统和认知无线电领域进行研究的研究生进行合作。项目方法利用参与项目的螺旋式发展过程，使参与者能够看到如何分解研究问题，并使项目的每一年都能在以前项目的基础上发展。该过程侧重于需求验证和测试，从而实现了与认知和自主测试车辆(CAT车辆)的安全交互。CAT车辆是一款全尺寸的福特Escape机器人汽车，它使用了各种传感器，可以用来让汽车自动驾驶，或者在汽车处于人类控制下时使用，以测试新技术或传感算法。预计参与者将在认知无线电、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发表研究成果和出版物。REU网站将对参与的学生产生重大影响，他们将在撰写学术出版物、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故事方面获得经验。预计该项目将产生能够提高所执行工作的可见度的文物，包括一段描述他们的项目旅程的视频，该视频有助于在参与者返回其所在机构后广泛传播他们的贡献。参与者获得了设计像汽车这样无处不在的系统组件的专业知识。与会者需要这样的经验和动力，以便以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规模有影响的问题。REU站点项目网站(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.