AUTONOMOUS RACING FACILITY
By: RICK ROBINSON | Categories: Alumni Achievements
At the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) Cobb County Research Facility—some 12 miles north of main campus—resides an unassuming, seemingly simple, dirt test track. At what’s known as the Georgia Tech Autonomous Racing Facility, faculty and students from the School of Interactive Computing and the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering routinely conduct cutting-edge research that could impact the future of transportation. They’ve programmed one-fifth-scale autonomous cars to race, slide and jump at the equivalent of 90 mph. The goal is to develop maneuvering techniques that can keep self-driving vehicles on the road and their occupants safe. Many futurists envision commuters napping through drive-time, high-speed convoys of networked big-rigs, and a huge drop in accidents as robotic vehicles take over from impaired and distracted humans. Tech is helping to make what once seemed like science fiction a modern-day reality.
