Statistical modelling of algorithms for signal processing in systems based on environment perception

One cornerstone for realising automated driving systems is an appropriate handling of uncertainties in the environment perception and situation interpretation. Uncertainties arise due to noisy sensor measurements or the unknown future evolution of a traffic situation. This work contributes to the understanding of these uncertainties by modelling and propagating them with parametric probability distributions

Limited Visibility and Uncertainty Aware Motion Planning for Automated Driving

Adverse weather conditions and occlusions in urban environments result in impaired perception. The uncertainties are handled in different modules of an automated vehicle, ranging from sensor level over situation prediction until motion planning. This paper focuses on motion planning given an uncertain environment model with occlusions. We present a method to remain collision free for the worst-case evolution of the given scene. We define criteria that measure the available margins to a collision while considering visibility and interactions, and consequently integrate conditions that apply these criteria into an optimization-based motion planner. We show the generality of our method by validating it in several distinct urban scenarios

Optimal Vehicle Motion Control to Mitigate Secondary Crashes after an Initial Impact.

Statistical data of road traffic fatalities show that fatalities in multiple-event crashes are higher than in single-event crashes. Most vehicle safety systems were developed to mitigate first crash events. Few active safety systems can deal with subsequent crash events. After a first crash event, drivers may not react in a timely or correct manner, which can have devastating consequences. Production active safety systems such as Electronic Stability Control (ESC) may not react to a first crash event properly unless such events are within their design specifications. The goal of this thesis is to propose control strategies that bring the vehicle state back to regions where drivers and ESC can easily take over the control, so that the severity of possible subsequent (secondary) crashes can be reduced. Because the most contributing causes of fatal secondary crashes are large lateral deviations and heading angle changes, the proposed algorithms consider both lateral displacement and heading of the vehicle. To characterize the vehicle motion after a crash event, a collision force estimation method and a vehicle motion prediction scheme are proposed. The model-based algorithm uses sensing information from the early stage of a collision process, so that the collision force can be predicted and the desired vehicle state can be determined promptly. The final heading angles are determined off-line and results are stored in a look-up table for faster implementation. Linear Time Varying Model Predictive Control (LTV-MPC) method is used to obtain the control signals, with the key tire nonlinearities captured through linearization. This algorithm considers tire force constraints based on the combined-slip tire model. The computed high-level control signals are realized through a control allocation problem which maps vehicle motion commands to tire braking forces. For real-time implementation, a rule-based control strategy is obtained. Several rules were constructed, and results under the rule-based control are similar to those under the optimal control (LTV-MPC) method while avoiding heavy on-board computations. Lastly, this thesis proposes a preemptive steering control concept. By assessing the expected strength of an imminent collision force from another vehicle, a preemptive steering control is applied to mitigate the imminent impact.PhDMechanical EngineeringUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/111343/1/bjukim_1.pd

교통약자 대상 강건 비상제동장치 개발

학위논문 (석사)-- 서울대학교 대학원 공과대학 기계항공공학부, 2017. 8. 이경수.본 연구는 교통약자를 대상으로 하는 자동비상제동 알고리즘을 개발하고자 진행된 연구이다. 자동비상제동장치란 센서로부터 얻은 환경정보를 기반으로 운전자가 예상하지 못한 사고를 회피하거나 사고의 피해를 완화할 수 있도록 차량을 제동해주는 장치이다. 이러한 자동비상제동장치가 점차 양산되고 보급되기 시작한 이후 사람들은 이러한 자동비상제동장치를 이용하여 교통 약자와 관련된 사고까지 예방하기 위한 노력들을 수행하고 있다. 교통 약자는 일반적으로 보행자, 자전거 등의 원동기를 장착하지 않은 도로 사용자로 정의된다. 교통 약자는 비록 그 속도가 차량에 비해 느리지만, 실제 사고가 발생할 경우 그 피해가 커질 우려가 있다. 따라서 이러한 교통 약자와 관련된 사고를 줄이기 위한 노력이 필요하다. 사고가 발생하기 이전에 위험을 인지하기 위해서는 자차량 및 대상 교통 약자의 거동을 예측할 필요가 있다. 이를 위해서는 자차량 및 교통 약자의 거동을 모사할 수 있는 동역학 모델이 필요하다. 차량의 경우 운전자가 사고를 회피할 수 있는지 확인하기 위해서는 실제로 운전자가 사고를 회피할 때 일반적으로 사용하는 회피 거동에 대한 모사 역시 필요하다. 이를 위하여 자차량의 거동은 등가속도 모델을 이용하여 표현하였다. 또한 교통 약자의 경우 보행자와 자전거를 구분하는데 한계가 있기 때문에 대상 교통 약자의 종류 구분 없이 안전 성능을 확보할 수 있어야 한다. 따라서 보행자 및 자전거의 거동은 동일한 등속 직선 운동 모델을 이용하여 표현하고자 하였다. 이렇게 예측된 정보들을 바탕으로 운전자가 사고를 회피할 수 있는지 판단하고자 하였다. 만약 운전자가 사고를 회피하고자 할 때 일정 수준의 안전거리를 확보하지 못할 경우 자동비상제동장치가 작동하여 차량을 제동하도록 하였다. 이 때 자동비상제동장치의 강건 성능을 확보하기 위하여 측정 시에 발생하는 불확실성 및 정보 예측 시에 발생하는 불확실성을 고려하여 안전 거리를 정의하였다. 이렇게 개발된 자동비상제동장치의 성능을 확인하기 위하여 차량 시뮬레이션 툴인 Carsim과 MATLAB/Simulink를 기반으로 시뮬레이션 평가를 수행하였다. 이 때 개발한 자동비상제동장치의 강건 성능을 검증하기 위하여 시뮬레이션을 동일 시나리오에 대해 100회 반복 수행 하였으며, 비교를 위하여 불확실성을 고려하지 않은 자동비상제동장치를 함께 평가하였다.A robust autonomous emergency braking (AEB) algorithm for vulnerable road users (VRU) is studied. Autonomous emergency braking (AEB) is a system which helps driver to avoid or mitigate a collision using sensor information. After many kinds of AEB system is produced by automakers, researchers and automakers are currently focusing on VRU-related collisions. Vulnerable road users (VRU) usually defined as non-motorized road users such as pedestrian and cyclist. Although VRU are relatively slower than vehicle, VRU related collisions should be prevented due to their fatalities. Therefore, many researchers are trying to develop a VRU-AEB. In order to assess the risk of collision before it occurs, the motion of host vehicle and target VRU should be predicted. For this, dynamic models of host vehicle and target VRU is required. In the case of host vehicle, in order to judge whether a driver can avoid a collision or not, drivers evasive maneuver also should be predicted as well as normal driving maneuver. For this, the motion of the host vehicle is predicted using constant acceleration model. In the case of target VRU, since the identification between pedestrian and cyclist is difficult, safety performance of AEB should be guaranteed even if the type of the target is unclear. Therefore, the behavior of pedestrian and cyclist is described using a single constant velocity model. These predicted information is then used to judge whether a collision is inevitable or not. If a driver cannot avoid a collision with pre-defined limits and safety margin, then the proposed AEB system is activated to decelerate the vehicle. To guarantee the robust safety performance of AEB system, measurement uncertainty and prediction uncertainty are also considered while defining the safety margin. To evaluate the safety performance of proposed AEB system, simulation study is conducted via vehicle simulation tool Carsim and MATLAB/Simulink. To investigate the robust safety performance of the proposed AEB system, simulation study is repeated 100 times with same traffic scenario with uncertainties. Performance of the proposed AEB system is compared with the deterministic AEB which is introduced in this work.Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Motivation 1 1.2 Autonomous Emergency Braking System – Global Trend 4 1.3 Thesis Objectives and Outline 9 Chapter 2 Previous Researches 10 Chapter 3 Autonomous Emergency Braking Algorithm for Vulnerable Road Users 17 Chapter 4 Host Vehicle Motion Prediction 19 4.1 Host Vehicle State Estimation 20 4.2 Host Vehicle Evasive Maneuver Prediction 24 Chapter 5 Target VRU Motion Prediction 28 5.1 Target VRU State Estimation 29 5.2 Target VRU Motion Prediction 34 Chapter 6 Threat Assessment 35 6.1 Collision Judgement 35 6.2 Safety Boundary for Collision Judgement 39 6.3 Emergency Braking Mode Decision 42 Chapter 7 Simulation Result 43 Chapter 8 Conclusion 50 Bibliography 51 국문초록 59Maste

X-38 Application of Dynamic Inversion Flight Control

This paper summarizes the application of a nonlinear dynamic inversion (DI) flight control system (FCS) to an autonomous flight test vehicle in NASA's X-38 Project, a predecessor to the International Space Station (ISS) Crew Return Vehicle (CRV). Honeywell's Multi-Application Control-H (MACH) is a parameterized FCS design architecture including both model-based DI rate-compensation and classical P+I command-tracking. MACH was adopted by X-38 in order to shorten the design cycle time for different vehicle shapes and flight envelopes and evolving aerodynamic databases. Specific design issues and analysis results are presented for the application of MACH to the 3rd free flight (FF3) of X-38 Vehicle 132 (V132). This B-52 drop test, occurring on March 30, 2000, represents the first flight test of MACH and one of the first few known applications of DI in the primary FCS of an autonomous flight test vehicle

Autonomous Driving: Baseline Autonomy

In near future Autonomous driving will affect every aspect of transportation and offer a significant boost in mobility for everyone. Autonomous driving techniques and modules must be chosen according to the task the platform is developed for. Slow speed driving on campus or highway driving in poor weather conditions, may require different sets of sensors, vehicle models and as a result different software architecture. Some of the main modules that an autonomous driving system needs are the vehicle state estimator and vehicle controller. The development of these two modules relies heavily on the robustness of the vehicle model chosen and the task at hand. University of Waterloo decided to join the Autonomous Driving research by partici- pating in the project, which required development and implementation of the autonomous driving demo sequence for Consumer Electronics Show in 2017. Since the demo sequence was to be performed at slow speeds and, because certain vehicle parameters were not available at the time, a kinematic vehicle model was used in implementation of the core autonomous driving modules: state estimation and control. These modules are imple- mented on a full scale autonomous driving platform and were designed based on the needs and requirements of the demo sequence. The implementation results show that the cho- sen vehicle model enables the state estimator to fuse incoming sensor data and allows the controller to track the desired path and velocity profile. For further deployment of the autonomous driving platform for research in urban and highway driving an aggressive driving framework was proposed that is based on dynamic vehicle model and incorporates the tire forces in the generation of the speed profile and keeps the vehicle at the limits of adhesion. The aggressive driving controller can be utilized for emergency evasive maneuvers at low road friction conditions. The controller was tested on a high fidelity simulation software for a double lane change emergency maneuver. The results showed that the aggressive driving framework proposed can be successfully incor- porated into the autonomous driving architecture and can perform position and velocity tracking at maximum possible speed