Our laser projector prototype can project predefined graphics, such as arrows, at specific locations in an environment. To achieve this, we rely on localization and environmental reconstruction. Localization is handled using GPS data from the vehicle via the CAN bus, while the reconstruction process is implemented in Unity.
During the integration days, the main objective was to deploy all necessary software components onto the TTControl hardware, including the CAN-bus API, Unity reconstruction and the laser control software. For this, we used an embedded version of Unity and cross-compiled the laser control software to run on the TTControl hardware. Since communication is based on the MQTT protocol, an MQTT broker was required, which we deployed using Docker.
To validate our setup, we ran the entire simulation on the TTControl hardware. For this, we emulated CAN-bus GPS messages and recreated how the system would function on a real-world snowgroomer. As shown in the video, the TTControl hardware successfully controlled the laser projector while ist (simulated) position was updated and correctly visualized in the Unity scene.
