Hi-Tech Robotic Systems is among the handful of companies in India that work on autonomous vehicles and the only one that has showcased its technology on major platforms like AutoExpo 2016 or at the Reliance Jio Campus, the video for which is shared above. The development has been reported by some of the major news network such as News18

I've had the opportunity to work on this project. Working on novus drive meant that I was exposed to some of the most sophisticated sensors available like Velodyne Lidars, Radars, Stereo Cameras and high accuracy GPS INS systems. My task included designing a framework that would enable the vehicle to detect any of the potential obstacles in its path and try and maneuver around the obstacle if possible, else the vehicle comes to a halt and waits until a passage is available.

To achieve the task I analyzed the information coming form the different sensors and created a costmap of the environment. Costmap is a basic representation of the perceived environment in the from of voxels, with each voxel being assigned a cost. Lower costs corresponded to free space, while higher costs indicate the presence of obstacles. Thereafter planning algorithms were deployed to generate a Global Path and a Local Path. The global path is generated path over long distance (to the next path checkpoint), whereas the local path is a variable path generated over a range of meters depending on the speed of the vehicle. Global Path gave the vehicle more of a sense of direction that it needs to take to reach its destination, while the Local Path helped to handle the everchanging environment equipping the vehicle with maneuvering capabilities.