The PoliMOVE-MSU team, a collaboration between Michigan State University and Politecnico di Milano, is a fierce competitor in the Indy Autonomous Challenge. The team has won first place in the competition multiple times and has set several world records, demonstrating just how impressive and versatile their skills are.

To best navigate environments and avoid expensive crashes when racing, autonomous vehicles need to be trained and tested on real-world sensor data. To capture data accurately, the PoliMOVE-MSU team utilizes a small remote-controlled car equipped with sensors, enabling the team to gather data without putting a full-scale car at risk. Unfortunately, the team currently does not have an easy way to control and receive data from the vehicle.

The Remote Interface for Small-Scale Autonomous Racecars assists with both research and community outreach, enabling both in the same easy-to-use web application. With our software, the user can operate the remote car while seeing real-time sensor data from the car, which is continually recorded and saved for efficient use in training. Furthermore, our software creates a realistic and safe environment for children to operate the vehicle, educating them about autonomous vehicles in a hands-on environment.

Our web application has three different views the user can choose from. The simple view shows less data but enables driving the car right from the touchscreen for easy demonstrations, enabling children to operate the vehicle via a touchscreen computer or tablet. The advanced view enables customizable sensor displays, ensuring researchers can track every sensor they need. The two-car view supports driving two cars simultaneously, so multiple users can work on the same instance of the application.

The front end of our software is written in ReactJS while the back end is built with Flask and Python. Communication with the car is handled using ROS2 middleware.