Inspiration
Our inspiration came from the recent advancements in V2X systems and the potential it has. We went over the API and discussed how it would save time and fuel.
What it does
It runs a simulation depicting a generic situation where cars go to a certain destination. The key is integrating simple physics and logic to have the vehicle path-find through a matrix to a certain point. If the vehicles run into the same intersection, the one with the shorter path will slow down for the one with the longer time. What this does is save time and fuel by allowing the one with the longer route to keep going without slowing down, making their travel more manageable.
How we built it
We had two teams - one team in frontend and the other in backend. The backend side worked mainly with physics, using references from the real V2X systems to make their equations to calculate how much each car should accelerate and decelerate and when. Outside of the math, we spent time working on a path-finding system using matrices so that all the vehicles would be going to the same point. On the frontend side, we primarily used React.js and the HTML Canvas API to model our simulation.
Challenges we ran into
The main challenge was integrating the backend and frontend together. Modelling our physics equations into the simulation was particularly challenging, as well as allowing each car in our simulation to follow the path finding algorithm Ayush wrote. We had to think outside the box and plan ahead of time for everything to work.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We're proud of how each team worked with their individual product. The backend hackers (Ayush and Manvender) did a great job with the physics, the 2d matrix representations, and the path finding - on the other hand, the front end hackers (Nathan and Aditiya) worked well with the React and Canvas API and making everything scalable and looking nice. We're also very proud of how we implemented the path finding, since that was a challenge for all of us. It took everyone working together to find all the bugs and fix them, and the end result - seeing all the vehicle go down to the bottom right all at once - was very satisfying.
What we learned
We all learned a lot about V2X systems and doing real-world simulations. Whether it was path-finding on the backend side or simulating a real world traffic using a matrix on the frontend side, analyzing and really dissecting every aspect of 2d arrays was something none of us had done this comprehensively before - and we came out the other side learning a lot! We really grew as a team together and learnt a lot about working efficiently in a team.
What's next for Ultra ITS
We hope to add more realism and quality of life changes! Traffic lights, pedestrians, stop signs, more cars, and of course, more realistic physics in the cars - the possibilities are endless. There's so much we can do with the simulation part, and with more attention on the physics behind everything, we could really make everything super realistic and super useful when trying to model these situations in real life.
Log in or sign up for Devpost to join the conversation.