Off-roading gets autonomous at MSU's CAVS

STARKVILLE — Positioned adjacent to Mississippi State University’s Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems (CAVS) is 55 acres of lowlands, wooded trails, sandy flats, rock and gravel littered paths and waist-high grass.

Plowing through the unpaved terrain is the MRZR, a four-wheeled, autonomous, off-roading vehicle CAVS designed. The 2 1/2 miles of dirt and gravel paths it travels along are part of CAVS’ Proving Grounds used to test and develop new vehicles.

“We say it’s the first, it is the best proving ground that’s ever been developed for autonomous off-road vehicles,” said Clayton Walden, executive director for CAVS. “There’s an awful lot of vegetation variation, there’s an awful lot of terrain variation, which are all things you would like to see in a test area for these types of vehicles.”

Members of the Starkville Rotary Club watched Monday at Hilton Garden Inn as Walden directed their attention to photos of the vehicle fleet, four autonomous vehicles of varying size and shape, all of which have been developed by CAVS to further develop research on autonomous vehicles, both on and off the road.

“We think a lot about the on-road autonomy, Tesla and others,” Walden explained. “But why would you want that in an off-road setting?”

Walden answered his own question, noting the possibility of self-driving tractors and their potential benefits in farming. He also mentioned military applications.

“You could send a vehicle into an area that could be hazardous to provide relief, or you could send the vehicle to provide reconnaissance,” Walden said. “… Any time we can improve safety by taking a human out of a dangerous environment, that’s a win. If we can improve productivity, that’s another win. We’re on the cusp of a new era of mobility in the off-road area.”

By leveraging the technology created by companies like Tesla, which explore on-road autonomous vehicles, CAVS has been able to further develop the software and hardware to suit off-roading needs. Each vehicle is equipped with several sensors along the perimeter to navigate difficult terrain. Cameras, GPS indicators, X-rays and LiDAR sensors (which emit rotating laser beams to determine the range between objects) all work to scan the environment and inform the vehicle of its surroundings.

The same 55 acres can only test so much, however. Walden said that in order to continue improving the software, engineers must find ways to expose the vehicles to a wider degree of terrain.

“The greater variety of conditions you expose the algorithm to, the smarter the algorithm becomes,” he said.

The Mississippi State University Autonomous Vehicle Simulator (MAVS) allows researchers to create virtual worlds with unlimited exposure to variations of terrain, vegetation, size, time of day and season.

“To do this work, you have to have virtual worlds,” Walden said. “The combinations and permutations of conditions, it’s just sort of unlimited, and we would never be able to test all of them physically.”

CAVS shares its research with other institutions around the world, allowing for people from other countries and specialties to further this research and help develop more sophisticated software to improve the technology. Walden highlighted an opportunity for Mississippi State students to get involved with the research at CAVS.

“Most of this work, the core area, is done by students, typically graduate students. But we will bring in some undergraduate students to help with some of the foundational work in this area,” Walden said. “It’s pretty interesting in terms of the types of majors. Pretty much any type of engineering major can absolutely play a role in this.”