Introduction
Stage 1 : Niti Vahan
Section titled “Stage 1 : Niti Vahan”Welcome, explorers, to Niti Vahan one of the thrilling themes of eYRC 2026-27! This year you build an autonomous vehicle that treats the rules of the road not as an obstacle, but as its own logic.
What This World Is About
Section titled “What This World Is About”The Disciplined City
Section titled “The Disciplined City”Picture a city arena where an Ackermann-steered vehicle has to earn its way through traffic reading lanes, holding at junctions, signalling its turns, and never crowding a neighbor’s space. Beyond just following rules, the Vahan is defined by its deep civic sense: because it constantly predicts its own future path, it never makes the sudden, selfish moves that cause others to panic.
The Mission
Section titled “The Mission”The core task is pick-up and drop-off collecting a passenger and threading it through the arena while obeying every traffic rule along the way. Stage 1 is about proving this capability in simulation
The Challenge
Section titled “The Challenge”Your mission is to bring this disciplined driver to life in simulation first, then on real hardware:
- Encode the traffic rulebook as mathematical constraints that a predictive control system can plan against.
- Generate a disciplined path that stops at junctions, signals turns, and completes milestones with minimal rule violations.
- Maintain dynamic stability while respecting the vehicle’s physical limits when navigating between locations.
- Execute precise parking within a designated zone to complete the route.
It’s about proving that smart control logic can produce safer, more orderly movement through the city.
The Abilities You Will Build
Section titled “The Abilities You Will Build”| Domain | Skills |
|---|---|
| Perception | Camera-based lane detection, junction and traffic-signal recognition |
| Planning & Control | Predictive path planning under traffic-rule constraints, Ackermann-steering dynamics, stable path tracking |
| Decision-Making | A layer that governs when to proceed, hold, or divert toward the parking zone |
The Two Stages
Section titled “The Two Stages”Win Condition
Section titled “Win Condition”A robot that can navigate the arena by following lanes, avoiding collision, and parking in the designated area.
This is your starting point. Everything you build across both stages — the lane keeping, the junction discipline, the parking — traces back to the mission laid out here.