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20 B uilding a self-driving car is hard, but building one where all the components can be swapped out, changed around and generally modified, is even harder. That is the challenge Bobby Hambrick set himself and his company, AutonomouStuff (AS). The company provides sensors, hardware and software for self-driving car projects, but Hambrick has put all of these together in a standard Lincoln MKZ sedan to fit all the different technologies together. That has required the development of a wide range of software, including machine learning, and the company aims to demonstrate a driverless car performing many of the tasks required for SAE Level 4 autonomy by the end of this year. At Level 4, a passenger can still take control of the steering wheel, accelerator and brake, rather than the fully autonomous Level 5 that has no user controls. But this is only one part of the project. The technology has deliberately been developed to be transferred to other vehicles including the Ford Fusion, an electric golf cart-like street-legal called Polaris Gem, or a petrol-engined off-road buggy platform called the Ranger. That requires a whole new software architecture to support flexibility in the types of sensors used, where they are positioned around the vehicle and how they communicate. It gives many more options to engineers researching and developing new approaches to autonomous systems, but the technology had to be designed from the ground up. The MKZ is manufactured by Ford, and has drive-by-wire technology for steering, brake and throttle connected via the CAN bus that runs throughout the vehicle to link all the electrical systems. The hybrid combines a 2 litre four-cylinder Atkinson-cycle engine with the hybrid powertrain from the Ford Fusion. The electric motor produces a total of 188 hp (142 kW) and includes an EV mode that allows the car to travel short distances on electricity alone at speeds of up to 47 mph. AS modifies the car by adding laser, camera and radar sensors, a drive-by- wire interface and a compute engine Nick Flaherty reports on the mix-and-match approach to technology components that are the hallmark of this autonomous car Fit for purpose April/May 2017 | Unmanned Systems Technology The Ford-manufactured MKZ has drive- by-wire technology for various systems