Claudio Annicchiarico

Claudio is the founder and CEO of Meccanica 42, a company that provides mechatronic systems in the automotive industry to enable the development of functional concepts in full-scale, real-time scenarios. Passionate about technology, Claudio was awarded his PhD in industrial engineering in 2010, specializing in validation methodologies for mechanical and mechatronic systems. After founding Meccanica 42, he continued to cultivate his main research interests in the fields of mechatronics, XIL (everything-in-the-loop) simulation and vehicle control systems development, with a specific focus on autonomous drive, sharing the advances of his studies through scientific papers and patents.

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Presentation

A2RL: how to effectively handle the autonomous race-car development process

This project is about enabling autonomous drive for race cars in competitive scenarios, delivering the highest performance levels while ensuring safe and reliable execution of autonomous tasks. Hardware and software architectures were designed and validated using real-time test rigs to meet performance and safety standards. The adopted HIL testing environment allowed safe validation of the drive-by-wire systems, considering intended functionalities, failure modes and misuse scenarios; moreover, it allowed verification of the reliability of the integration with the teams-specific algorithms, maintaining top-tier functional safety levels. Launched in 2024, the A2RL competition is now a platform for innovating AD across industries beyond motorsport.