With this we aim to create a challenging new competitive arena for student teams to get hands-on experience with this technology and put their own fresh thinking into how it can help to achieve energy efficiency.

There are two competitions currently in development:

Shell Eco-marathon Urban Concept Autonomous Competition (in development)

This competition is for teams to take their cars to the next level. Teams have to consider the application of autonomous technology to their Urban Concept vehicle in order to get through a series of challenges. We continue to develop this competition with a small group of dedicated teams.

Shell Eco-marathon Autonomous Programming Competition

The Autonomous Programming Competition, in partnership with Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), is a result of consultation and feedback from students around the world to offer an option that is accessible to more students, reducing financial barriers and emphasising more areas of STEM specialisms such as computer programming.

In this completely virtual competition, participants are challenged to develop path planning, perception, and control algorithms for an autonomous vehicle using the Robot Operating System (ROS). The codes are then tested in a simulated environment using Microsoft AirSim with the Unreal Engine.