scholarly journals Visibility-Based Technologies and Methodologies for Autonomous Driving

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Said Easa ◽  
Yang Ma ◽  
Ashraf Elshorbagy ◽  
Ahmed Shaker ◽  
Songnian Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Autonomous Vehicles ◽  
Visual Space ◽  
Autonomous Driving ◽  
Obstacle Detection ◽  
Car Following ◽  
Sight Distance ◽  
Mapping System ◽  
3D Mapping System ◽  
Highway Alignment ◽  
Mapping Scheme

The three main elements of autonomous vehicles (AV) are orientation, visibility, and decision. This chapter presents an overview of the implementation of visibility-based technologies and methodologies. The chapter first presents two fundamental aspects that are necessary for understanding the main contents. The first aspect is highway geometric design as it relates to sight distance and highway alignment. The second aspect is mathematical basics, including coordinate transformation and visual space segmentation. Details on the Light Detection and Ranging (Lidar) system, which represents the ‘eye’ of the AV are presented. In particular, a new Lidar 3D mapping system, that can be operated on different platforms and modes for a new mapping scheme is described. The visibility methodologies include two types. Infrastructure visibility mainly addresses high-precision maps and sight obstacle detection. Traffic visibility (vehicles, pedestrians, and cyclists) addresses identification of critical positions and visibility estimation. Then, an overview of the decision element (path planning and intelligent car-following) for the movement of AV is presented. The chapter provides important information for researchers and therefore should help to advance road safety for autonomous vehicles.

Obstacle Detection for Autonomous Driving Vehicles With Multi-LiDAR Sensor Fusion

2019 ◽  
Vol 142 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mingcong Cao ◽  
Junmin Wang
Keyword(s):  
Data Processing ◽  
Autonomous Vehicles ◽  
Hybrid Electric Vehicle ◽  
Spatial Clustering ◽  
Autonomous Driving ◽  
Obstacle Detection ◽  
Lidar Data ◽  
Detection Accuracy ◽  
Clustering And Classification ◽  
Systematic Solution

Abstract In contrast to the single-light detection and ranging (LiDAR) system, multi-LiDAR sensors may improve the environmental perception for autonomous vehicles. However, an elaborated guideline of multi-LiDAR data processing is absent in the existing literature. This paper presents a systematic solution for multi-LiDAR data processing, which orderly includes calibration, filtering, clustering, and classification. As the accuracy of obstacle detection is fundamentally determined by noise filtering and object clustering, this paper proposes a novel filtering algorithm and an improved clustering method within the multi-LiDAR framework. To be specific, the applied filtering approach is based on occupancy rates (ORs) of sampling points. Besides, ORs are derived from the sparse “feature seeds” in each searching space. For clustering, the density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise (DBSCAN) is improved with an adaptive searching (AS) algorithm for higher detection accuracy. Besides, more robust and accurate obstacle detection can be achieved by combining AS-DBSCAN with the proposed OR-based filtering. An indoor perception test and an on-road test were conducted on a fully instrumented autonomous hybrid electric vehicle. Experimental results have verified the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms, which facilitate a reliable and applicable solution for obstacle detection.

scholarly journals Processor-in-the-Loop Architecture Design and Experimental Validation for an Autonomous Racing Vehicle

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (16) ◽  
pp. 7225
Author(s):  
Eugenio Tramacere ◽  
Sara Luciani ◽  
Stefano Feraco ◽  
Angelo Bonfitto ◽  
Nicola Amati
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Personal Computer ◽  
Trajectory Planning ◽  
Autonomous Vehicles ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Experimental Validation ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Autonomous Driving ◽  
Obstacle Detection ◽  
System Level

Self-driving vehicles have experienced an increase in research interest in the last decades. Nevertheless, fully autonomous vehicles are still far from being a common means of transport. This paper presents the design and experimental validation of a processor-in-the-loop (PIL) architecture for an autonomous sports car. The considered vehicle is an all-wheel drive full-electric single-seater prototype. The retained PIL architecture includes all the modules required for autonomous driving at system level: environment perception, trajectory planning, and control. Specifically, the perception pipeline exploits obstacle detection algorithms based on Artificial Intelligence (AI), and the trajectory planning is based on a modified Rapidly-exploring Random Tree (RRT) algorithm based on Dubins curves, while the vehicle is controlled via a Model Predictive Control (MPC) strategy. The considered PIL layout is implemented firstly using a low-cost card-sized computer for fast code verification purposes. Furthermore, the proposed PIL architecture is compared in terms of performance to an alternative PIL using high-performance real-time target computing machine. Both PIL architectures exploit User Datagram Protocol (UDP) protocol to properly communicate with a personal computer. The latter PIL architecture is validated in real-time using experimental data. Moreover, they are also validated with respect to the general autonomous pipeline that runs in parallel on the personal computer during numerical simulation.

scholarly journals Sensor and Sensor Fusion Technology in Autonomous Vehicles: A Review

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
De Jong Yeong ◽  
Gustavo Velasco-Hernandez ◽  
John Barry ◽  
Joseph Walsh
Keyword(s):  
Sensor Fusion ◽  
Autonomous Vehicles ◽  
Autonomous Driving ◽  
Obstacle Detection ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Software Systems ◽  
Radar Sensors ◽  
Technical Performance ◽  
Driving Task ◽  
Single Sensor

The market for autonomous vehicles (AV) is expected to experience significant growth over the coming decades and to revolutionize the future of transportation and mobility. The AV is a vehicle that is capable of perceiving its environment and perform driving tasks safely and efficiently with little or no human intervention and is anticipated to eventually replace conventional vehicles. Self-driving vehicles employ various sensors to sense and perceive their surroundings and, also rely on advances in 5G communication technology to achieve this objective. Sensors are fundamental to the perception of surroundings and the development of sensor technologies associated with AVs has advanced at a significant pace in recent years. Despite remarkable advancements, sensors can still fail to operate as required, due to for example, hardware defects, noise and environment conditions. Hence, it is not desirable to rely on a single sensor for any autonomous driving task. The practical approaches shown in recent research is to incorporate multiple, complementary sensors to overcome the shortcomings of individual sensors operating independently. This article reviews the technical performance and capabilities of sensors applicable to autonomous vehicles, mainly focusing on vision cameras, LiDAR and Radar sensors. The review also considers the compatibility of sensors with various software systems enabling the multi-sensor fusion approach for obstacle detection. This review article concludes by highlighting some of the challenges and possible future research directions.

MPC-Based Control of Autonomous Vehicles With Localized Path Planning for Obstacle Avoidance Under Uncertainties

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sai Rajeev Devaragudi ◽  
Bo Chen
Keyword(s):  
Path Planning ◽  
Obstacle Avoidance ◽  
Autonomous Vehicles ◽  
Autonomous Vehicle ◽  
Autonomous Driving ◽  
Obstacle Detection ◽  
Sensor Data ◽  
Constant Time ◽  
Longitudinal Motion ◽  
Driver Assistance Systems

Abstract This paper presents a Model Predictive Control (MPC) approach for longitudinal and lateral control of autonomous vehicles with a real-time local path planning algorithm. A heuristic graph search method (A* algorithm) combined with piecewise Bezier curve generation is implemented for obstacle avoidance in autonomous driving applications. Constant time headway control is implemented for a longitudinal motion to track lead vehicles and maintain a constant time gap. MPC is used to control the steering angle and the tractive force of the autonomous vehicle. Furthermore, a new method of developing Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) algorithms and vehicle controllers using Model-In-the-Loop (MIL) testing is explored with the use of PreScan®. With PreScan®, various traffic scenarios are modeled and the sensor data are simulated by using physics-based sensor models, which are fed to the controller for data processing and motion planning. Obstacle detection and collision avoidance are demonstrated using the presented MPC controller.

scholarly journals Redundant Multi-Object Detection for Autonomous Vehicles in Structured Environments

2022 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. C1-C17
Author(s):  
Stefano Feraco ◽  
Angelo Bonfitto ◽  
Nicola Amati ◽  
Andrea Tonoli
Keyword(s):  
Object Detection ◽  
Autonomous Vehicles ◽  
Point Clouds ◽  
Autonomous Driving ◽  
Obstacle Detection ◽  
Single Shot ◽  
Custom Hardware ◽  
Instrumented Vehicle ◽  
Deep Learning Neural Network ◽  
Local Map

This paper presents a redundant multi-object detection method for autonomous driving, exploiting a combination of Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) and stereocamera sensors to detect different obstacles. These sensors are used for distinct perception pipelines considering a custom hardware/software architecture deployed on a self-driving electric racing vehicle. Consequently, the creation of a local map with respect to the vehicle position enables development of further local trajectory planning algorithms. The LiDAR-based algorithm exploits segmentation of point clouds for the ground filtering and obstacle detection. The stereocamerabased perception pipeline is based on a Single Shot Detector using a deep learning neural network. The presented algorithm is experimentally validated on the instrumented vehicle during different driving maneuvers.

Evaluation and Optimization of Responsibility-Sensitive Safety Models on Autonomous Car-Following Maneuvers

2020 ◽  
Vol 2674 (11) ◽  
pp. 662-673 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chen Chai ◽  
Xianming Zeng ◽  
Xiangbin Wu ◽  
Xuesong Wang
Keyword(s):  
Autonomous Vehicles ◽  
Autonomous Driving ◽  
Safety Performance ◽  
Cruise Control ◽  
Car Following ◽  
Traffic Efficiency ◽  
Safety Distance ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Important Challenge ◽  
Safety Models

Safety is an important challenge in the development of autonomous vehicles (AVs). To ensure the safety of AVs, Intel and Mobileye have proposed a model called Responsibility-Sensitive Safety (RSS). Previous studies have shown that RSS has the potential to improve the safety performance of AVs, especially for partial autonomous driving algorithms. However, it is been shown that RSS leads to a considerable car-following distance, which has a negative effect on traffic efficiency. To improve the efficiency of RSS when applied to adaptive cruise control (ACC) systems, this paper proposes an improved strategy that involves triggering conditions of RSS. Two triggers of safety distance are defined according to different car-following assumptions. To test the performance of RSS models, original and improved RSS models are embedded in ACC based on model predictive control (MPC) algorithms. Car-following scenarios with a sudden deceleration of the lead vehicle (LV) at various time headways are simulated to evaluate the performance of improved RSS models. Results show that triggering RSS at the boundary of the safety distance calculated by considering the vehicle’s intentions is a better RSS model. This improved RSS model has a similar safety improvement effect to the ACC system as the original RSS in most risk scenarios and performs better in car-following efficiency. As the improved RSS model achieves a better trade-off between safety and efficiency, it can be used to improve the safety performance of partial autonomous driving algorithms like ACC on autonomous car-following maneuvers on expressways.

scholarly journals A Fuzzy Logic-Based Approach for Humanized Driver Modelling

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Yuxiang Feng ◽  
Pejman Iravani ◽  
Chris Brace
Keyword(s):  
Fuzzy Logic ◽  
Autonomous Vehicles ◽  
Control Strategies ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Autonomous Driving ◽  
Driver Model ◽  
Vehicle Model ◽  
Car Following ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Instrumented Vehicle

All human drivers can be characterised by their habitual choice of driving behaviours, which results in a wide range of observed driving patterns and manoeuvres. Developing control strategies for autonomous vehicles that address this feature would increase the public acceptance of such vehicles. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel approach to developing rule-based fuzzy logic driver models that simulate different driving styles in the car-following regimes. These driver models were trained with the collected on-road driving data to capture corresponding human drivers’ characteristics. The proposed approach consists of three main components: collecting on-road driving data, developing a vehicle model, and establishing the car-following driver models. Firstly, an instrumented vehicle was used to collect driving data over the same route for three consecutive months. Car-following scenarios during these journeys were extracted, and related data were processed accordingly. Afterwards, a representative model of the instrumented vehicle was created and evaluated. Finally, a fuzzy logic driver model that uses humanized inputs was developed and calibrated with the recorded data. The developed driver model’s performance was assessed using the collected driving data and a baseline PID driver model. With the performance validated, models representing more aggressive and more defensive driving styles were derived following the same procedure. A cross-driver analysis was then implemented in a normalized car-following scenario with the established vehicle model to investigate the impacts of different driving styles further. The developed driver model can introduce driving styles into drive cycle experiments and replicate on-road real driving emission tests in the laboratory. Moreover, as the proposed method has high robustness to incomplete datasets, it can be a more cost-effective option to facilitate the development of humanized and customized vehicle control strategies for autonomous driving.

Lane-Marker-Based Map Construction and Map Precision Evaluation Methods Using On-Board Cameras for Autonomous Driving

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 613-623
Author(s):  
Kenta Maeda ◽  
Junya Takahashi ◽  
Pongsathorn Raksincharoensak ◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Autonomous Vehicles ◽  
Evaluation Method ◽  
Autonomous Driving ◽  
Sufficient Information ◽  
High Definition ◽  
Special Purpose Vehicle ◽  
Construction Methods ◽  
Map Construction ◽  
Mapping System ◽  
Cost Efficient

This report describes a map construction and evaluation method based on lane-marker information for autonomous driving. Autonomous driving systems typically require digital high-definition (HD) maps to correct the current position of autonomous vehicles by using localization techniques. However, an HD map is usually costly to generate because it requires a special-purpose vehicle and mapping system with precise and expensive sensors. This report presents a map construction method that uses cost-efficient on-board cameras. We implement two types of map construction methods with two different cameras in terms of range and field of view and test their performances to determine the minimum sensor specification required for autonomous driving. This report also presents a constructed map evaluation method to determine the “usability” of the map for autonomous driving. Given that the system cannot obtain “true” positions of landmarks, the method judges whether the constructed map contains sufficient information for localization via the presented indices “lateral-distance error.” The methods are verified based on mapping and localization errors determined via manual driving tests. Furthermore, the smoothness of steering maneuvers is determined by conducting autonomous driving tests on a proving ground. The results reveal the necessary conditions of sensor requirements, i.e., the constant visibility of landmarks is one of the key factors for ego-localization to conduct autonomous driving.

Investigation of the Impact on Throughput of Connected Autonomous Vehicles with Headway Based on the Leading Vehicle Type

2019 ◽  
Vol 2673 (5) ◽  
pp. 617-626 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marilo Martin-Gasulla ◽  
Peter Sukennik ◽  
Jochen Lohmiller
Keyword(s):  
Autonomous Vehicles ◽  
Autonomous Vehicle ◽  
Autonomous Driving ◽  
Maximum Throughput ◽  
Vehicle Class ◽  
Car Following ◽  
Control Delay ◽  
Vehicle Type ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Introductory Phase

Although the future era of autonomous driving is seen as a solution for many of the current problems in traffic; the introductory phase, with low penetration rates of connected-autonomous vehicles (CAVs), might lead to lower capacities. This forecast is based on certain assumptions that the CAVs can operate more efficiently when communicating and cooperating—already proved in real tests—therefore in practice, they can keep smaller following headways. However, it is envisioned that they might keep larger headways to other conventional vehicles for safety reasons. Lower connected-autonomous vehicle (CAV) penetration rates lead to a reduction in the overall vehicle throughput, then with increasing penetration rates, throughput is recovered and eventually improved. Simulations demonstrate that the impact on vehicle throughput depends on the car following headway and penetration rate. Based on this potential reduction in the maximum throughput for low penetration rates, the aim of this paper is the mitigation of this phenomenon at urban intersections through a possible managing solution to sort CAVs and a pre-set green-time start. A microsimulation model has been calibrated using PTV Vissim to reflect this operating solution, using new possibilities as leading vehicle class dependent headway settings and formula-based routing for sorting vehicles at a two-lane intersection entry. This approach allows the formation of platoons at intersections and uses their effectiveness even at low CAV penetration rates. The tested scenario is simplified to through traffic without turnings maneuvers and the results show that the potential loss in throughput is canceled and reductions in the control delay can reach 17% for oversaturated conditions.

scholarly journals Sensor and Sensor Fusion Technology in Autonomous Vehicles: A Review

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 2140
Author(s):  
De Jong Yeong ◽  
Gustavo Velasco-Hernandez ◽  
John Barry ◽  
Joseph Walsh
Keyword(s):  
Object Detection ◽  
Sensor Fusion ◽  
Autonomous Vehicles ◽  
Autonomous Driving ◽  
Obstacle Detection ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Sensor Calibration ◽  
Automated Driving ◽  
Detection Techniques ◽  
Technical Performance

With the significant advancement of sensor and communication technology and the reliable application of obstacle detection techniques and algorithms, automated driving is becoming a pivotal technology that can revolutionize the future of transportation and mobility. Sensors are fundamental to the perception of vehicle surroundings in an automated driving system, and the use and performance of multiple integrated sensors can directly determine the safety and feasibility of automated driving vehicles. Sensor calibration is the foundation block of any autonomous system and its constituent sensors and must be performed correctly before sensor fusion and obstacle detection processes may be implemented. This paper evaluates the capabilities and the technical performance of sensors which are commonly employed in autonomous vehicles, primarily focusing on a large selection of vision cameras, LiDAR sensors, and radar sensors and the various conditions in which such sensors may operate in practice. We present an overview of the three primary categories of sensor calibration and review existing open-source calibration packages for multi-sensor calibration and their compatibility with numerous commercial sensors. We also summarize the three main approaches to sensor fusion and review current state-of-the-art multi-sensor fusion techniques and algorithms for object detection in autonomous driving applications. The current paper, therefore, provides an end-to-end review of the hardware and software methods required for sensor fusion object detection. We conclude by highlighting some of the challenges in the sensor fusion field and propose possible future research directions for automated driving systems.

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