ROS2 versus AUTOSAR: automated PARKING system case-study

Vehicles are complex systems as they combine several engineering disciplines, such as mechanical, electric, electronic, software and telecommunication. In the last decades, most innovations in the automotive domain have been achieved as a combination of electronics and software. Consequently, the software development and deployment has resulted a highly sophisticated engineering process to manage and to integrate. With the introduction of artificial intelligence, automated driving has become a reality. However it has additionally increased the requirements on the system design. One widely accepted approach to manage complexity is to divide the system into subsystems through a well-defined architecture. The architecture of an autonomous system must be suitable to guarantee that the self-driving functionality remains safe in a broad range of operational domains. The challenge is how to design the architecture of the system to be reliable and resilient to changing context. The automotive industry has well established standards and development practices, but it is open to explore and integrate solutions from other domains like Internet of Things and Robotics. In the area of autonomous systems, the capabilities of the robotics middleware ROS2 have been used for prototyping purposes. It is an open question whether ROS2 is suitable for automotive safety relevant applications. This master thesis addresses this challenge through evaluating the possible application of ROS2 in the automotive domain. The development consists of implementing an architecture for an autonomous driving function case-study, an Automated Parking System, which adapts to its context by switching between different operational modes. The Automated Parking System has been implemented and validated in a simulation environment. The experiment results show which benefits bring ROS2 compared with the automotive standardised architecture AUTOSAR

Optimal control of a flywheel-based automotive kinetic energy recovery system

This thesis addresses the control issues surrounding flywheel-based Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS) for use in automotive vehicle applications. Particular emphasis is placed on optimal control of a KERS using a Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT) for volume car production, and a wholly simulation-based approach is adopted. Following consideration of the general control issues surrounding KERS operation, a simplified system model is adopted, and the scope for use of optimal control theory is explored. Both Pontryagin’s Maximum Principle, and Dynamic Programming methods are examined, and the need for numerical implementation established. With Dynamic Programming seen as the most likely route to practical implementation for realistic nonlinear models, the thesis explores several new strategies for numerical implementation of Dynamic Programming, capable of being applied to KERS control of varying degrees of complexity. The best form of numerical implementation identified (in terms of accuracy and efficiency) is then used to establish via simulation, the benefits of optimal KERS control in comparison with a more conventional non-optimal strategy, showing clear benefits of using optimal control

AILiveSim : An Extensible Virtual Environment for Training Autonomous Vehicles

Virtualization technologies have become common- place both in software development as well as engineering in a more general sense. Using virtualization offers other benefits than simulation and testing as a virtual environment can often be more liberally configured than the corresponding physical envi- ronment. This, in turn, introduces new possibilities for education and training, including both for humans and artificial intelligence (AI). To this end, we are developing a simulation platform AILiveSim. The platform is built on top of the Unreal Engine game development system, and it is dedicated to training and testing autonomous systems, their sensors and their algorithms in a simulated environment. In this paper, we describe the elements that we have built on top of the engine to realize a Virtual Environment (VE) useful for the design, implementation, application and analysis of autonomous systems. We present the architecture that we have put in place to transform our simulation platform from automotive specific to be domain agnostic and support two new domains of applications: autonomous ships and autonomous mining machines. We describe the important specificity of each domain in regard to simulation. In addition, we also report the challenges encountered when simulating those applications, and the decisions taken to overcome these challenges.Peer reviewe

Synergizing Roadway Infrastructure Investment with Digital Infrastructure for Infrastructure-Based Connected Vehicle Applications: Review of Current Status and Future Directions

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.The safety, mobility, environmental and economic benefits of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) are potentially dramatic. However, realization of these benefits largely hinges on the timely upgrading of the existing transportation system. CAVs must be enabled to send and receive data to and from other vehicles and drivers (V2V communication) and to and from infrastructure (V2I communication). Further, infrastructure and the transportation agencies that manage it must be able to collect, process, distribute and archive these data quickly, reliably, and securely. This paper focuses on current digital roadway infrastructure initiatives and highlights the importance of including digital infrastructure investment alongside more traditional infrastructure investment to keep up with the auto industry's push towards this real time communication and data processing capability. Agencies responsible for transportation infrastructure construction and management must collaborate, establishing national and international platforms to guide the planning, deployment and management of digital infrastructure in their jurisdictions. This will help create standardized interoperable national and international systems so that CAV technology is not deployed in a haphazard and uncoordinated manner

Performance analysis and optimization of automotive GPUs

© 2019 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes,creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and Autonomous Driving (AD) have drastically increased the performance demands of automotive systems. Suitable highperformance platforms building upon Graphic Processing Units (GPUs) have been developed to respond to this demand, being NVIDIA Jetson TX2 a relevant representative. However, whether high-performance GPU configurations are appropriate for automotive setups remains as an open question. This paper aims at providing light on this question by modelling an automotive GPU (Jetson TX2), analyzing its microarchitectural parameters against relevant benchmarks, and identifying specific configurations able to meaningfully increase performance within similar cost envelopes, or to decrease costs preserving original performance levels. Overall, our analysis opens the door to the optimization of automotive GPUs for further system efficiency.This work has been partially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) under grant TIN2015-65316-P, the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 772773) and the HiPEAC Network of Excellence. Pedro Benedicte and Jaume Abella have been partially supported by the MINECO under FPU15/01394 grant and Ramon y Cajal postdoctoral fellowship number RYC-2013-14717 respectively and Leonidas Kosmidis under Juan de la Cierva-Formacin postdoctoral fellowship (FJCI-2017-34095).Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Investigation of cylinder deactivation and variable valve actuation on gasoline engine performance

Increasingly stringent regulations on gasoline engine fuel consumption and exhaust emissions require additional technology integration such as Cylinder Deactivation (CDA) and Variable valve actuation (VVA) to improve part load engine efficiency. At part load, CDA is achieved by closing the inlet and exhaust valves and shutting off the fuel supply to a selected number of cylinders. Variable valve actuation (VVA) enables the cylinder gas exchange process to be optimised for different engine speeds by changing valve opening and closing times as well as maximum valve lift. The focus of this study was the investigation of effect of the integration of the above two technologies on the performance of a gasoline engine operating at part load conditions. In this study, a 1.6 Litre in-line 4-cylinder gasoline engine is modelled on engine simulation software and simulated data is analysed to show improvements in fuel consumption, CO2 emissions, pumping losses and effects on CO and NOx emissions. A CDA and VVA operating window is identified which yields brake specific fuel consumption improvements of 10-20% against the base engine at engine speeds between 1000rpm to 3500rpm at approximately 12.5% load. Highest concentration of CO emissions was observed at between 4 to 5 bar BMEP at 4000rpm and highest concentration of NOx at the same load range but at 1000rpm.Findings based on simulation results point towards significant part load performance improvements which can be achieved by integrating cylinder deactivation and variable valve actuation on gasoline engines. Copyright © 2014 SAE International

Integrated Process Simulation and Die Design in Sheet Metal Forming

During the recent 10-15 years, Computer Aided Process Planning and Die Design evolved as one of the most important engineering tools in sheet metal forming, particularly in the automotive industry. This emerging role is strongly emphasized by the rapid development of Finite Element Modelling, as well. The purpose of this paper is to give a general overview about the recent achievements in this very important field of sheet metal forming and to introduce some special results in this development activity. Therefore, in this paper, an integrated process simulation and die design system developed at the University of Miskolc, Department of Mechanical Engineering will be analysed. The proposed integrated solutions have great practical importance to improve the global competitiveness of sheet metal forming in the very important segment of industry. The concept described in this paper may have specific value both for process planning and die design engineers

Recent Achievements in Numerical Simulation in Sheet Metal Forming Processes

Purpose of this paper: During the recent 10-15 years, Computer Aided Process Planning and Die Design evolved as one of the most important engineering tools in sheet metal forming, particularly in the automotive industry. This emerging role is strongly emphasized by the rapid development of Finite Element Modelling, as well. The purpose of this paper is to give a general overview about the recent achievements in this very important field of sheet metal forming and to introduce some special results in this development activity. Design/methodology/approach: Concerning the CAE activities in sheet metal forming, there are two main approaches: one of them may be regarded as knowledge based process planning, whilst the other as simulation based process planning. The author attempts to integrate these two separate developments in knowledge and simulation based approach by linking commercial CAD and FEM systems. Findings: Applying the above approach a more powerful and efficient process planning and die design solution can be achieved radically reducing the time and cost of product development cycle and improving product quality. Research limitations: Due to the different modelling approaches in CAD and FEM systems, the biggest challenge is to enhance the robustness of data exchange capabilities between various systems to provide an even more streamlined information flow. Practical implications: The proposed integrated solutions have great practical importance to improve the global competitiveness of sheet metal forming in the very important segment of industry. Originality/value: The concept described in this paper may have specific value both for process planning and die design engineers