1. Technologies used
- Unreal Engine
- C++
- Blender
- Photoshop
2. Problem
It is not a secret that autonomous vehicles are around the corner. But, the usual and existing testing methods for manual automobiles are actually not viable for autonomous vehicles primarly due to safety concerns and government regulations. But you cannot send out an automobile onto the the market until it has passed all the necessary tests. According to a survey the accidents per billion miles driven is approximately 700 in the US. In order to make autonomous vehicles acceptable, it should do less than that amount. But you cannot test by putting lives in danger. Our team came together and tried to find a solution for this while not compromising the standards but producing good results.
3. Challenges
We had agreed on making a near photorealistic environment with actual scenarios that we see in real roads using a Game Engine called Unreal Engine. We had to start everything from scratch. We had to create a terrain, a tarmac road and running vehicles in it. It was easier said than done. We also had to simulate day and night as well as artificial lights and pedestrians and everything has to random.
4. Solution
With the help of certain mathematical equations, we were able to generate totally random terrains and roads and the vehicles to move along the generated road. We used Blender to crete and modify the 3d objects we see in the end result. Photoshop was used to create textures for the materials. With the Unreal Engine, we did all calculations and generated terrains, roads, pedestrians, artifical lights, daylight, night, mist, rain and trafiic.
5. Result
The project was a great learning oppurtunity. It also provided a feeling of creating something exceptional. The leaders in the automotive industry calculates, if replaced for traditional automotive testing and implemented with all the features as a fully fledged application, this could save a great deal of money.
