TECH NEWS – Self-driving cars – dream or reality? Do Hungarian students hold the key to revolutionary technology? Two young talents have proven that the answer is yes! Bence Mihály Kis and Jonatán Dániel Varga swept the RobonAUT competition, showing that Hungarian engineering students are also at the forefront of developing self-driving technologies. Why is this so important? What does Hungarian society think about autonomous (self-driving) vehicles?

Two young Hungarian engineers have proven that the intelligent transportation of the future is already on the doorstep. Bence Mihály Kis, a master’s student at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME VIK) and a member of the Bosch internship program, and his teammate, also a master’s student at BME, Jonatán Dániel Varga, triumphed with a completely unique, self-driving model car at the RobonAUT competition, which was organized by BME. In the 16th RobonAUT competition, all participants received the same basic vehicle, which they could modify in a unique way. The task was equally difficult for everyone, as they had to perform the same skill and speed tasks on the same track.

Mihály and Dániel’s team, “Sufnituning Kft.”, achieved success with their vehicle named “Mateszre”, inspired by Matukája from the cartoon Verdák. They defeated the entire field with unique technical solutions, sophisticated software tricks and dedicated work. The vehicle’s special feature is the rear-wheel steering, which allows for tighter turns and better maneuvering.

Bence Mihály Kis: He has already competed in the RobonAUT competition before, so he entered this year’s competition armed with experience. He works as a hardware development intern at Bosch, and is currently developing a pressure pulse-based test system for pressure sensors. According to his own admission, in the three days before the final, they slept a total of 11 hours, wrote nearly 9,000 lines of code, and the amount of collected telemetry data was more than 1 GB.

Jonatán Dániel Varga: Bence’s teammate, also a master’s student at BME, who contributed to the success of “Sufnituning Kft.” with software solutions. He was responsible for the route search algorithm and the model-based control necessary for the best driving dynamics.

The results achieved in the RobonAUT competition prove that young people are committed to the development of autonomous vehicles. Self-driving cars and automated driving are not unknown concepts in Hungarian society. 87 percent of those surveyed are familiar with this technology. And 94 percent of them know what it is for, according to the Bosch Tech Compass research. At the same time, seventeen out of a hundred Hungarians believe that automated driving could be the most decisive technology in 10 years. Moreover, 14 percent of respondents believe that these developments will serve society in an outstanding way.

Events like RobonAUT not only provide an ideal platform for talented students to unleash their creativity, but are also crucial in creating the cutting-edge technologies of the future. Here, young people face real engineering challenges, are forced to develop innovative solutions, and can test their skills in a real-world environment, which is why the experience gained in such competitions is invaluable.

Source: Bosch Hungary