Robotics
← Practice/Sensor Fusion

System design: odometry for an RC car doing hoops and jumps

hardsubjectivesystem design

Asked in interviews

Design an odometry system for an aggressive RC car that drives through hoops and takes jumps (leaves the ground). What sensors and motion model would you use? Under what conditions would this system be non-differentiable, and what would the motion-model equations look like?

rampairborne — wheels off ground
An RC car launches off a ramp and goes airborne doing hops and flips — its wheels leave the ground, so wheel odometry can't describe the motion.

Voice input needs Chrome or Edge. On this browser, type your answer — grading is the same.