Video•Feb 10, 2026
Design and Testing of Autonomous Vehicles
The video introduces a senior capstone course, Design and Testing of Autonomous Vehicles, where students build a complete autonomous landing system that mimics lunar‑lander challenges. The class moves from mission definition through requirements, software architecture, and finally hardware integration, tasking drones to scan a high‑bay, rank terrain features, and land upright using only a camera and LiDAR.
Key insights include a strong focus on real‑time perception and decision making under sensor constraints, extensive simulation‑to‑real testing to close the fidelity gap, and systems‑level thinking that forces students to consider how each design choice impacts overall performance. The curriculum also stresses iterative unit testing, incremental code deployment, and rigorous validation against unpredictable environments, such as preventing the drone from navigating through safety nets.
Notable examples feature custom code that blocks the drone from exploring beyond visible nets, and anecdotes about teaching assistants providing hands‑on debugging that mirrors industry practice. Instructors highlight that alumni have gone on to work on high‑profile projects like SpaceX booster landings and Google’s wing program, underscoring the course’s real‑world impact.
The significance lies in cultivating engineers who can tackle unsolved autonomous‑landing problems, bridging academic research with commercial space endeavors, and delivering a talent pipeline equipped to advance lunar and planetary exploration missions.
