Self-Driving Engineer
Training Base
Playground For Engineers
Course Contents
Practice and test of Autoware algorithms on real cars
General course about Drive-by-wire and Car Electronics
Workshop:
Metal 3D printing in car manufacturing
Training and lecture of Autoware, the world's first open source autonomous driving software
Autonomous driving road tests
Complete challenges from Udacity course such as traffic light recognition, lane detection etc
Hardware Support
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5 self-driving development cars
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Full set of sensors – LiDAR, industrial camera, GPS inertial navigation, millimeter wave radar, etc.
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Various industrial CNC machining equipment
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Metal 3D printing system
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Training venue, testing roads and setup , application scenes
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By-wire control, vehicle retrofitting, racing events
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Real car Hands-on practice creating Autonomous Driving Systems with the world's first open-source software“Autoware”
The Training Site
PIX FACTORY
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5000 square meters
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Test site in industrial park
The Open Road Test Site
URBAN AREA
One square kilometer's urban road In Guiyang Hi-tech district
GUIYANG,
CHINA
Mentors
Alexander Carballo Segura
Autoware Software Mentor
Designated Assistant Professor at Nagoya University, Research Consultant at TierIV Inc. Doctor of Engineering (D.Eng.) in Computer Science from University of Tsukuba, Japan. Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Robotics and Automation Society (RAS), Computer Society, and Systems, Man and Cybernetics Society. Professional Member of the Robotics Society of Japan (RSJ). Active reviewer for IEEE Int ref Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), also Advanced Robotics Journal and the Journal of the Robotics Society of Japan. Great research and work experiences in the autonomous driving industry. Main research interests: Human-robot interaction, social robotics, autonomous robot navigation, autonomous vehicles, robotic perception, machine learning, computer networks, unmanned aerial vehicles.
Dowson Tseng
Vehicle Hardware Mentor
Full-stack engineer at PIX. Deep proficiency in car hardware and software. Specialized in applying software and controls into vehicles to realize autonomous driving applications in real scenarios. Majored in Automation, Dowson holds years of experience in autonomous driving and have participated in the mechanical designs of PIX Robo-vehicle and coffee car. Dowson is the main lead in the mechanical and drive-by-wire controls of PIX cars, with rich engineering experience in the autonomous driving upper system.
Agenda
DAY 1
9:00 AM - 12:00 PM
• Comprehensive introduction: Self-driving Training Base and PIX self-driving car
• Overview: Onsite training tasks, goals and daily training contents
• Introduction: The world's first self-driving open source software - Autoware
• Warming-up: Catch up and get to know each other; 5 students form a team and choose their own car
• Safety Training Session
13:30 PM - 18:00 PM
• System and software deployment of each team
- Tensorflow installation (GPU version)
- Autoware installation
• Day1 summary, wrap-up and sharing
DAY 3
9:00 AM - 12:00 PM
• Team practice on physical car
- Connecting sensors, opening software, collecting and mapping, and enabling the basic self-driving mobility in each team’s car
13:30 PM - 18:00 PM
• Team practice on physical car, modify the Autoware source code and add the project to Autoware framework, enabling the traffic light recognition function of the course in Autoware
• Day3 summary, wrap-up and sharing
DAY 5
9:00 AM - 12:00 PM
• WORKSHOP:
- Courses of By-wire Control, Electric Vehicle Generative Design and Metal 3D Printing
- Keep optimizing the task performances
13:30 PM - 18:00 PM
• Group JAM: Bring out each team's creativity to realize more functions on the self-driving car under the premise of safety.
• Show & Tell from each team
DAY 2
9:00 AM - 12:00 PM
• WORKSHOP:
- Applying Autoware On Cars, Professor Alex Segura from Nagoya University
- Further understand Autoware framework and the relationship between each node, practice and learn map collection
13:30 PM - 18:00 PM
• Test onsite for data collection and training
- 1. Data collection, labeling, training targeted detector
- 2. Configure the relevant files
• Test the classifiers and get the classifier output
• Day2 summary, wrap-up and sharing
DAY 4
9:00 AM - 12:00 PM
• Team practice on physical car
- Test the traffic lights and check the Start/Stop functions
13:30 PM - 18:00 PM
• Operation on-board: Optimize the detection and car functions
• Day4 summary, wrap-up and sharing
Why
Engineers need to practice and test self-driving technology on the physical cars, learning both software and hardware comprehensively
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The global demand for self-driving talents is about 100,000+, but existing full-stack engineers number can only meet 10% of that demand;
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Running the algorithms on the physical hardware and vehicles will help engineers improve their development capabilities;
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Trillion market demand, 10,000+ startups, 1000+ traditional car enterprises, are all looking for talented self-driving engineers, whose number is only 10,000;
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Self-driving development is highly dependent on testing and data, while there are only 30+ self-driving test sites around the world, with strict requirements;
They Said
“I think (establishing the training base) this is a very good idea. After engineers finish their courses, they’re gonna realize all those on the real car.“
Zepeng Lee
"The hardware here is very complete. It's a great honor to be among the first batch of engineers to attend the training. I hope the best for PIX Self-driving Training Base."
Hao Jiang
I am so honored to participate in the first cohort of the self-driving training base. During the five days of training, I have gained a lot. I believe that more students will come here to learn, and the training base will do better, which is obvious. The training base will provide more for the students.
Engineer Experience
& Feedback
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"I think (establishing the training base) it’s a great concept. Whether it’s company employees or hobbyists, they all lack the experience from online coding to onsite practice, which is quite necessary for a self-driving engineer."
Si jun Xiao
I worked together with my teammates from coding to software application. Finally, we completed the whole process of the hardware configuration and vehicle debugging on real car. The five-day experience is quite impressive to me and I’ve learned a lot.
Qinghua Yang
Shenting Yu
Angelo Yu
Founder & CEO
of PIX Self-Driving
When we started PIX project, the biggest problem we encountered was the lack of engineers. Many engineers enter the autonomous driving industry by changing careers from other related fields such as robotics, automation, image search, artificial intelligence, and so on. One of the biggest problems after doing that is the engineers know little about the vehicle control and the hardware, and they don't have the experience of running algorithms on the real vehicles. So we hope to make up to the lack of onsite training through the training base.
So far in the world, there are few such places. The thing is that universities teach researchers or teach engineers in very specific fields like robotics only or vehicle control only, but being able to integrate all the technology and being able to deploy that into a car, it’s just so a few places. The most important part is that being able to do that on the real car as PIX is proposing is an amazing idea so I think it’s going to have a big impact not only in China, but it will attract the attention of the world and people will be applying from the world to come here. So I think that there is transformation that PIX’s unique idea of putting people in the practical scenes, putting people in the cars and being able to actual control the cars.
“
Alexander Carballo Segura
Senior Research Consultant at TierIV / Professor from Nagoya University
FAQ
01/ What’s the Self-driving Engineer Training Base?
With the onsite training and series of courses from the Training Base, participants will experience the fun of engineering and road tests by running his/her algorithms on real cars, further mastering the principles and applications of autonomous driving with hands-on practice.
Autonomous driving is an industry with great demand for talents. Many engineers enter the autonomous driving industry by changing careers from other related fields such as robotics, automation, and AI etc., which exposes the problem of having less experience in running algorithms on the real vehicles and knowing little about the vehicle control or the hardware. Training Base onsite training course will quality participants with the relevant skills and knowledge of autonomous driving.
02/ What exactly will I do during the five days?
Full-stack hands-on experience and learning from mechanics, electronics to algorithms of autonomous driving cars.
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General course about Drive-by-wire and Car Electronics -
Training and lecture of Autoware, the world's first open source autonomous driving software -
Workshop: Metal 3D printing in car manufacturing -
Practice and test of Autoware algorithms on real cars -
Autonomous driving road tests -
Complete challenges from Udacity course such as traffic light recognition, lane detection etc.
03/ Why should I apply?
Practice and test self-driving technologies on physical cars, learning both software and hardware comprehensively. Equip yourself with the solid knowledge and experience of autonomous driving control, software and so on. Ignite your passion for engineering and creativity, using autonomous driving technology to shape a better world.
04/ Who are suitable to attend the Training Base ?
Software engineers, ROS developers, engineering/computer students, mobility-related company employees, self-driving startups, or someone who has learned about autonomous driving before and looks for hands-on experience on real cars, someone who wants to know how to build a self-driving car from scratch (introductory knowledge), or anyone who are passionate about autonomous driving & cars.
05/ Do I need to have some basic skills?
Actually, Not Really. but it will be a plus if you have something related like the following stuff: knowing about autonomous driving; some basic knowledge about the Linux (ubuntu) operating system; capability to complete the software deployment of the system (install some basic necessary software); know about ROS (Robot Operating System); basic coding/programming abilities such as C++ and python etc.; hands-on ability; most importantly, strong interest in autonomous driving.
06/ Do I need to pay for the course?
Yes, you need to pay fees to attend the course. The training price is ¥22,880. The tuition fee includes training expenses and catering, accommodation and advanced insurance fees during the training period. Tuition fees do not include travel to and from the training base.
07/ What about the travel expenses?
You need to cover the travel/flights expenses by yourself.
08/ Where will I sleep and what to eat?
The Organizer will make full arrangement for the foods and accommodation during your stay.
09/ Are there mentors and tutors to help onsite?
Yes. There will be tremendous help, support, assistant, guidance and mentorship throughout the whole process, which include mentors from Nagoya University/Tier IV with deep proficiency in autonomous driving software, tutors from PIX with profound experience with car hardware and by-wire control, also assistant mentors from Udacity with solid knowledge of car software and electronics.
10/ How many people will be participating?
Fifteen (15) in total. We want to ensure the quality so that every participant can benefit as much as possible. Limited spots!
11/ When and Where?
Date: November late 2019 (Five days)
Location: Guiyang, China
12/ Is there a deadline for application?
The deadline for international application is 8:00 PM, October 31st, UTC+8, 2019
13/ What hardware will be provided onsite?
• Self-driving cars with by-wire control capabilities and full set sensors – LiDAR, industrial camera, GPS inertial navigation, millimeter wave radar, etc.
• All kinds of electronics, tools and devices for hardware retrofitting and daily use
• Various industrial CNC machining equipment
• Metal 3D printing system
• Training venue, testing roads and setup, application scenes
14/ What do I need to bring?
Your computer/laptop. Warm clothes
15/ How to ensure the safety of operating self-driving vehicles during the PIX Boost?
• Roadblocks will be set up around the site when the self-driving vehicles are in operation, preventing other people and vehicles from entering the operating area. Participants shall not turn on the self-driving mode of the vehicle outside the corresponding area;
• Organizer will dispatch experienced engineers as safety driver in each vehicle. Participants are not allowed to operate the self-driving vehicle without safety driver;
• Before the program, participants will attend safety training session including handling emergencies and so on;
• Each self-driving vehicle onsite is equipped with remote emergency stop button. Self-driving car brake system can enable manual take-over and stop the self-driving mode at any time.
16/ What if the FAQ did not answer my questions?
We've got you, just email to nancy@pixmoving.com and we’ll get back to you asap.
Pre-Signup
Self-driving Engineer Training Base Cohort III
End of November, 2019
Training Base Cohort I
