The exterior may be very much that of a regular
Perodua Myvi with some creative styling revisions, but what’s underneath the
hood is anything but. This is the Urban Intelligent Mobile Autonomous Vehicle
II, also known as AVII, a design study created by Universiti Teknologi Mara
(UiTM) as a testbed for autonomous driving research.
The AVII is a collaboration between four faculties
i(electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, art & design and computer
and mathematical sciences), and is described as “a locally-developed and
innovatively-pioneered futuristic autonomous electric vehicle, proficient in
navigating long stretches of road with minimal human intervention.”
It boasts an array of autonomous drive equipment to
help it achieve this goal. These include a Velodyne VLP-16 light detection and
ranging (LIDAR) unit, which creates 360-degree 3D images through input from 16
laser/detector pairs.
Elsewhere, an inertial measurement unit helps
determine the vehicle heading, while a Emlid GPS system provides the necessary
positional awareness. There’s also a point-grey camera (for lane awareness), a
laser range finder, ultrasonic sensor and a rotational encoder in the sensor
kitbag. Autonomous capabilities include steering and throttle, path planning/navigation,
lane detection as well as short to medium range object detection.
The AVII, which seats four and tips the scales at
1,000 kg, has been designed primarily for autonomous driving research, but
there’s also a secondary exploration into electric mobility. Components include
a five hp asynchronous 48 volt DC motor, which is juiced by a 8.1 kWh lead-acid
battery unit.
Operating range is 50 km, and via a household 240V
outlet and a built-in three-pin plug connection, the battery takes five hours to
achieve a full charge. Maximum operating speed is 30 km/h, but the car has been
programmed to a 25 km/h top speed.
