Skip to main content

Acknowledgements and History

ASE is a large and complex project that requires many hands on deck, especially regarding the production of all Rovers. Without everyone's help there would be no Rovers to speak of, so we are incredibly thankful for everyone's contributions ❤️.

  • Hugo van Wezenbeek played a key role in designing the hardware and provided hardware support and build guide development for future maintainers.
  • Eduardo Lira supported in the development of key software and authored safety critical software on the Rover. He pioneered the field of simulator development for the Rover.
  • Niels Althuisius (Electronica Beta) designed, planned and manufactured the custom printed circuit boards that connect all electronics of the Rover. He has helped out incredibly since the very first participation in the NXP Cup.
  • Arnoud Denker (Electronica Beta) helped with manufacturing of electronic boards for the Rovers.
  • Rob Nieman (Fijnmechanische Instrumentatie Bèta) helped with the manufacturing of the chassis of the Rovers.
  • Lars Eeuwijk (Fijnmechanische Instrumentatie Bèta) consulted on various mechanical decisions regarding the construction of the Rover.

And especially, dr. Natalia Silvis-Cividjian who has, continuing on her Pervasive Computing course, created the Project Autonomous Driving course and is the driving force behind the VU's competition in the NXP cup. Natalia is creator and manager of the ASE project and has always provided us with the means, motivation, guidance and support to race. ASE could not exist without her.

History​

ASE is built on the BSc course Project Autonomous Driving, taught by dr. Natalia Silvis-Cividjian since 2019. Students were selected from the Pervasive Computing course to deepen and apply their knowledge and to craft and race an autonomous vehicle in the NXP cup. All members of the original ASE team were once students in this project.

The 2019 NXP cup racing environment

The ASE team is involved in a long history with the NXP cup. In 2021, Hugo van Wezenbeek finished 6th place and in 2022, Hugo and Eduardo Lira won the NXP cup video contest prize for their car software and hardware design.

The team continued in 2022, qualifying first place in Eindhoven, but finishing 10th place in Bucharest. In 2023, the original ASE team (Eduardo, Hugo, Max, Elias, Niels and Natalia) decided to build the autonomous Rover from the ground up, with fully custom hardware and software.

Hugo van Wezenbeek working on the hardware design of the Rover

Hardware design and development was led by Max and Hugo while all software design and development was done by Elias Groot and Eduardo Lira. All electronics are designed by Niels Althuisius. The new Rover is almost fully engineered and produced in-house at the VU with support of the electro-mechanical and fine-mechanical labs at the VU. And the work paid off: in 2024, the team finished first place in the qualifiers in Eindhoven and first place in the finals in Hamburg, becoming champions of Europe, the Middle-East and Africa.

The ASE team on the podium with the NXP cup organizers, receiving the first prize

You can view our first-place run here:


We now supply students with the hardware and software framework, and knowledge and expertise to allow them to research and tackle their own challenges. The focus does not lie on racing anymore, but the Rover certainly still has speed enough for students willing to compete in the NXP cup on behalf of ASE. The ASE project has been organized by Max and Elias since its start in 2024, under supervision of Natalia. For the 2025 edition, we also work together with five new domain experts to broaden the topics researched at ASE.