FPGA-based autonomous vehicle competitions in a capstone design course

Robotic vehicle designs and competitions often serve as the basis for undergraduate senior capstone design courses in electrical and computer engineering. Such competitions are well suited to senior level design as they require the design and integration of a number of components. Also, design competition specifications can easily be formulated that require significant design without imposing a particular solution on the student design team. This paper describes the goals, content and experiences of a one semester capstone design course in which students design, implement and test an FPGA-based robotic vehicle capable of performing a number of competition specific tasks.