A team at UNC Charlotte has been working on an autonomous vehicle to drag a cart that has sensing equipment. starting with a stock Honda ATV, different systems were added to provide a Renesas processor manage of the ATV.  A design airplane receiver was connected to the Renesas to provide remote manage for phase 1 of the project. basically they’ve turned the ATV into a giant remote controlled car.

Later revisions will integrate LIDAR, cameras, as well as several GPS units so the ATV can autonomously traverse most terrain with a high level of accuracy. path planning will ended up being a big part of the job at that point.