OCU for Scotty.ai

This is an OCU, or Operator Control Unit, which enables controlling a virtual vehicle with an interface. The project used a combination of CNC-cut plywood and 80-20. Considerations for the design include ergonomics, display placement, and thermal for a small rack-mounted computer incorporated into the design. This project was part of Scotty Labs, which started at SRI (Stanford Research Institute) and in a short time grew into an autonomous vehicle company. I was part of the core team initially hired at the startup and was with the company until it was acquired by DoorDash, in August 2019.

Plywood and 80-20 are incredibly versatile and ideal for rapid prototyping. This project required a low number of units and was designed primarily as a research prototype. This enables many users to drive a virtual car. The interaction enables the system to learn over time. As with most machine learning configurations, a pipeline is created and data can be used to train a model. This OCU is just one of many components that can be used to form an end-to-end system. If given the chance to build such a project in high volume, I would most likely use a building technique similar to workout equipment. Steel or aluminum tube frame, with injection-molded plastics.