Tentative Project Timeline

Check lectures for details on what to develop for each of tracks!

Check Campuswire for detailed guidelines and examples for the final presentation, mid-point check-in, and pitch presentation!

Grade breakdown

The team project is worth 25% of your total grade. The breakdown of the grades is below.

PROJECT PITCHES (15%)

In class, you’ll be giving a high-level pitch of what you would like to focus on for your project. Here is a template for your presentation.

MILESTONE CHECK-IN (20%)

Choose any 15-minute slot during April 18th to discuss your progress with TAs.

You are expected to have 12*N hours of work since the pitch presentations (N=number of group members)

It will be a combination of Group progress + Individual Questions

FINAL PRESENTATION (65%)

ECE484 Spring 2025 Presentation Guidelines

• You must provide a motivation and introduction to your project, a description of the overall system, methods you have used, and your key highlights of your results in a 2 min video. Make sure it is visually interesting. This is to be submitted by May 12th 11:59PM
• Your final presentation will be May 14th 4-7 PM where you will give a VERY BRIEF description of your problem and focus PRIMARILY on your results and evaluation.
• You will be graded by the course staff on your (1) pitch / motivation; (2) clarity of the system description; (3) novelty of the method; (4) thoroughness of (proposed) analysis and results (if finished); and (5) presentation style.
• A rubric will be posted soon.

1. GEM (Hardware) Track

Description.

Our GEM vehicle has several software modules for autonomous waypoint following, LIDAR, camera, etc. Please carefully read and get familiar with GEM vehicle resources. More details to come.

Requirements.

• A few people in your team must have a valid driver’s licenses
• Highly recommended that your team has a car (you will have to get to the highbay often—201 St. Mary’s street, Champaign)

First steps.

Get lab DRS Laboratory Safety Training and DRS Fire Extinguisher Training from here. Generate the training certificates and wait for further instructions. More in-person trainings for the highbay will be necessary.

2. GRAIC (Simulation) Track

GRAIC is an open international autonomous racing competition. Your team will compete in this race and have to develop the software for autonomous racing in the environment with pedestrians, complex tracks, and other vehicles. Perception is not going to be a big part of the competition, but if you like, you can create your own version of the race and develop the perception pipeline.

First steps.

• Familiarize yourself with the GRAIC simulator and software

3. F1-tenth Track

In the F1-Tenth project, you will be tasked with implementing an autonomy stack on a small car. You have a suite of sensors including an RGBD-camera, 270 degree LiDAR, and motion capture system at your disposal to complete the project. You will be able to test your software on F1-Tenth cars in CSL Studio.

First steps.

• Familiarize yourself with the F1-Tenth hardware

First steps.

Get lab DRS Laboratory Safety Training and DRS Fire Extinguisher Training from Generate the training certificates and wait for further instructions. More in-person trainings for the highbay will be necessary.