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Go-Kart#

Overview#

This document describes the hardware and software configurations of the autonomous Go-Kart, which uses Autoware for autonomous driving. It serves as a guideline to select hardware and software components to build autonomous vehicles. This document is not a step-by-step instruction or a Q&A book. Where such material exists, this document links to it.

Design overview#

The charts give a high-level overview of the design. The metrics page defines most of the axes. It has no definition for ODD, supportability, traffic density, camera, GPS, LiDAR, and radar.

Meta-info radar chart of the Go-Kart: openness 5, ODD 0, maturity 1, vehicle size 1, supportability 2, hardware requirement 4, software requirement 5, availability 3, and automation level 3.Meta-info chartGo-Kart. Each axis has a value from 0 to 5.012345Openness5ODDunordered: 0Maturity1Vehicle size1Supportability2Hardware requirement4Software requirement5Availability3Automation level3
The Go-Kart design scores from 0 to 5 on each of the nine meta-info metrics.
Tech-info radar chart of the Go-Kart: payload 2, cost 1, communication 2, vehicle speed 2, traffic density 1, distance between disengagements 1, power consumption 1, camera 2, GPS 1, LiDAR 1, and radar 0.Tech-info chartGo-Kart. Each axis has a value from 0 to 5.012345Payload2Cost1Communication2Vehicle speed2Traffic density1Distance betweendisengagements1Power consumption1Camera2GPS1LiDAR1Radar0
The Go-Kart design scores from 0 to 5 on each of the eleven tech-info metrics.

Who should read#

Read this page if you want to build a small autonomous vehicle and look for a place to start.

References and resources#

Note

The Go-Kart code uses ROS 2 Foxy or ROS 2 Humble. Autoware 2.0.0 supports ROS 2 Humble on Ubuntu 22.04 and ROS 2 Jazzy on Ubuntu 24.04. To build Autoware for the Go-Kart, see Source installation.

Contributors#

  • Autoware Center of Excellence (under Prof. Rahul Mangharam)

Targeted use cases#

Use Cases:EducationRacingPoCOpen AD KitCommercial Services/Production
Go-Kart

ODD#

ODDCargoBusRoboTaxiLow Speed (Utility) VehicleDelivery Robot
Go-Kart

Automation level#

Automation Level012345
Go-Kart

System architecture#

The autonomous Go-Kart is a one-third scale autonomous vehicle for development and prototyping. You can use it to develop and test software components of Autoware. The photo shows the drive-by-wire parts: the drive motor with throttle-by-wire, the upper and lower steer-by-wire, the brake-by-wire, and the back shelf with the main controller.

The Go-Kart with its drive-by-wire parts

Hardware configuration#

Chassis#

Sensors#

  • LiDAR: Ouster OS1 and Velodyne Velarray M1600
  • Camera: OAK-D camera
  • GNSS: RTK-GNSS (Septentrio receiver)
  • IMU: Adafruit 9-DoF IMU

Computing platforms#

  • x86 laptop with NVIDIA GPU
  • STM32 Nucleo microcontroller boards (Nucleo L432KC and Nucleo F439ZI)

Software configuration#

The diagram shows how the sensors and the microcontrollers connect to the computer.

The Go-Kart sensors, router, and microcontrollers, and the cables and buses that connect them to the computer.EthernetTNC cableWirelessMicro-USBUSB-TTLUSBUSB-TTLI2CComputerComputing unitOuster LiDARSensorGNSS antennaSensorSeptentrio GNSSSensorGo-kart drive infoMain Nucleo F439ZILTE routerDeviceOAK-D cameraSensorNucleo L432KCMicrocontrollerAdafruit 9-DoF IMUSensor
The Go-Kart sensors and microcontrollers connect to the computer over Ethernet, USB, and USB-TTL.