Making Transport Safer: V2V-Based Automated Emergency Braking System

An important goal in the field of intelligent transportation systems (ITS) is to provide driving aids aimed at preventing accidents and reducing the number of traffic victims. The commonest traffic accidents in urban areas are due to sudden braking that demands a very fast response on the part of drivers. Attempts to solve this problem have motivated many ITS advances including the detection of the intention of surrounding cars using lasers, radars or cameras. However, this might not be enough to increase safety when there is a danger of collision. Vehicle to vehicle communications are needed to ensure that the other intentions of cars are also available. The article describes the development of a controller to perform an emergency stop via an electro-hydraulic braking system employed on dry asphalt. An original V2V communication scheme based on WiFi cards has been used for broadcasting positioning information to other vehicles. The reliability of the scheme has been theoretically analyzed to estimate its performance when the number of vehicles involved is much higher. This controller has been incorporated into the AUTOPIA program control for automatic cars. The system has been implemented in Citroën C3 Pluriel, and various tests were performed to evaluate its operation

Cooperative controllers for highways based on human experience

The AUTOPIA program has been working on the development of intelligent autonomous vehicles for the last 10 years. Its latest advances have focused on the development of cooperative manœuvres based on communications involving several vehicles. However, so far, these manœuvres have been tested only on private tracks that emulate urban environments. The first experiments with autonomous vehicles on real highways, in the framework of the grand cooperative driving challenge (GCDC) where several vehicles had to cooperate in order to perform cooperative adaptive cruise control (CACC), are described. In this context, the main challenge was to translate, through fuzzy controllers, human driver experience to these scenarios. This communication describes the experiences deriving from this competition, specifically that concerning the controller and the system implemented in a Citröen C3

Hierarchical fuzzy logic systems and controlling vehicles in computer games

This paper presents a possible application of fuzzy logic systems to control vehicles in computer games. A new architecture of a fuzzy logic system is here proposed: Hierarchical Fuzzy Controller, that is composed of several fuzzy controllers in their classic meaning. ”Hierarchical” means that fuzzy sets produced as output of one of fuzzy controllers are then processed as input of another fuzzy controller. The use of such a controller significantly enhances the possibilities of computational intelligence methods in singleplayer games, i.e. where the enemy is controlled by an agent simulating real behaviour (movement, decisions, etc.). The proposal of an original architecture of Hierarchical Fuzzy Controller, built with fuzzy controllers (in the sense of Mamdani), and discussing advantages of using this architecture to control military vehicles in a 2D single-player game, in comparison to classic fuzzy controllers, are the main scope of the paper

Validation of trajectory planning strategies for automated driving under cooperative, urban, and interurban scenarios.

149 p.En esta Tesis se estudia, diseña e implementa una arquitectura de control para vehículos automatizados de forma dual, que permite realizar pruebas en simulación y en vehículos reales con los mínimos cambios posibles. La arquitectura descansa sobre seis módulos: adquisición de información de sensores, percepción del entorno, comunicaciones e interacción con otros agentes, decisión de maniobras, control y actuación, además de la generación de mapas en el módulo de decisión, que utiliza puntos simples para la descripción de las estructuras de la ruta (rotondas, intersecciones, tramos rectos y cambios de carril)Tecnali

Hierarchical hybrid control: A case study

A case study of the difficulties encountered in the design of hierarchical, hybrid control systems is presented. As our example we use the Intelligent Vehicle Highway System (IVHS) architecture proposed for vehicle platooning, a system that involves both continuous state and discrete event controllers. We point out that even though conventional analysis tools suggest that the proposed design should fulfill certain performance requirements, simulation results show that it does not. We consider this as an indication that the conventional tools currently in use for the design and verification of control systems may be inadequate for the design of hierarchical controllers for hybrid systems. The analysis also indicates certain shortcomings of the current IVHS design. We propose solutions to fix these problems

Cooperative Autonomous Vehicle Speed Optimization near Signalized Intersections

Road congestion in urban environments, especially near signalized intersections, has been a major cause of significant fuel and time waste. Various solutions have been proposed to solve the problem of increasing idling times and number of stops of vehicles at signalized intersections, ranging from infrastructure-based techniques, such as dynamic traffic light control systems, to vehicle-based techniques that rely on optimal speed computation. However, all of the vehicle-based solutions introduced to solve the problem have approached the problem from a single vehicle point of view. Speed optimization for vehicles approaching a traffic light is an individual decision-making process governed by the actions/decisions of the other vehicles sharing the same traffic light. Since the optimization of other vehicles’ speed decisions is not taken into consideration, vehicles selfishly compete over the available green light; as a result, some of them experience unnecessary delay which may lead to increasing congestion. In addition, the integration of dynamic traffic light control system with vehicle speed optimization such that coordination and cooperation between the traffic light and vehicles themselves has not yet been addressed. As a step toward technological solutions to popularize the use of autonomous vehicles, this thesis introduces a game theoretic-based cooperative speed optimization framework to minimize the idling times and number of stops of vehicles at signalized intersections. This framework consists of three modules to cover issues of autonomous vehicle individual speed optimization, information acquisition and conflict recognition, and cooperative speed decision making. It relies on a linear programming optimization technique and game theory to allow autonomous vehicles heading toward a traffic light cooperate and agree on certain speed actions such that the average idling times and number of stops are minimized. In addition, the concept of bargaining in game theory is introduced to allow autonomous vehicles trade their right of passing the traffic light with less or without any stops. Furthermore, a dynamic traffic light control system is introduced to allow the cooperative autonomous vehicles cooperate and coordinate with the traffic light to further minimize their idling times and number of stops. Simulation has been conducted in MATLAB to test and validate the proposed framework under various traffic conditions and results are reported showing significant reductions of average idling times and number of stops for vehicles using the proposed framework as compared to a non-cooperative speed optimization algorithm. Moreover, a platoon-based autonomous vehicle speed optimization scheme is posed to minimize the average idling times and number of stops for autonomous vehicles connected in platoons. This platoon-based scheme consists of a linear programming optimization technique and intelligent vehicle decision-making algorithm to allow vehicles connected in a platoon and approaching a signalized intersection decide in a decentralized manner whether it is efficient to be part of the platoon or not. Simulation has been conducted in MATLAB to investigate the performance of this platoon-based scheme under various traffic conditions and results are reported, showing that vehicles using the proposed scheme achieve lower average values of idling times and number of stops as compared to two other platoon scenarios

A driverless vehicle demonstration on motorways and in urban environments

International audienceThe constant growth of the number of vehicles in today's world demands improvements in the safety and efficiency of roads and road use. This can be in part satisfied by the implementation of autonomous driving systems because of their greater precision than human drivers in controlling a vehicle. As result, the capacity of the roads would be increased by reducing the spacing between vehicles. Moreover, greener driving modes could be applied so that the fuel consumption, and therefore carbon emissions, would be reduced. This paper presents the results obtained by the AUTOPIA program during a public demonstration performed in June 2012. This driverless experiment consisted of a 100-kilometre route around Madrid (Spain), including both urban and motorway environments. A first vehicle – acting as leader and manually driven – transmitted its relevant information – i.e., position and speed – through an 802.11p communication link to a second vehicle, which tracked the leader's trajectory and speed while maintaining a safe distance. The results were encouraging, and showed the viability of the AUTOPIA approach