Dynamic Trajectory Generation Using Continuous-Curvature Algorithms for Door to Door Assistance Vehicles

International audienceIn this paper, an algorithm for dynamic path generation in urban environments is presented, taking into account structural and sudden changes in straight and bend segments (e.g. roundabouts and intersections). The results present some improvements in path generation (previously hand plotted) considering parametric equations and continuous-curvature algorithms, which guarantees a comfortable lateral acceleration. This work is focused on smooth and safe path generation using road and obstacle detection information. Finally, some simulation results show a good performance of the algorithm using different ranges of urban curves. The main contribution is an Intelligent Trajectory Generator, which considers infrastructure and vehicle information. This method is recently used in the framework of the project CityMobil2, for urban autonomous guidance of Cybercars

Autonomous vehicle control systems for safe crossroads

This article presents a cooperative manoeuvre among three dual mode cars – vehicles equipped with sensors and actuators, and that can be driven either manually or autonomously. One vehicle is driven autonomously and the other two are driven manually. The main objective is to test two decision algorithms for priority conflict resolution at intersections so that a vehicle autonomously driven can take their own decision about crossing an intersection mingling with manually driven cars without the need for infrastructure modifications. To do this, the system needs the position, speeds, and turning intentions of the rest of the cars involved in the manoeuvre. This information is acquired via communications, but other methods are also viable, such as artificial vision. The idea of the experiments was to adjust the speed of the manually driven vehicles to force a situation where all three vehicles arrive at an intersection at the same time

The r-evolution of driving: from Connected Vehicles to Coordinated Automated Road Transport (C-ART)

Connected and automated vehicles could revolutionise road transport. New traffic management approaches may become necessary, especially in light of a potential increase in travel demand. Coordinated Automated Road Transport (C-ART) is presented as a novel approach that stakeholders may consider for an eventual full realisation of a safe and efficient mobility system.JRC.C.4-Sustainable Transpor

A Time Gap-Based Spacing Policy for Full-Range Car-Following

International audienceCar-following systems aim to improve safety and comfort whereas increasing traffic throughput. These techniques follow a spacing policy that determines how the ego-vehicle tracks its preceding one. This paper proposes a spacing policy to maximize the traffic throughput and reduce the inter-vehicle distances without losing safety and ensuring the string stability. A variable time gap policy is developed for low speeds, yielding the same dynamic response for high speeds and shorter spacing gaps. Simulations and real platforms' experiments are shown to validate the proposed approach

Vehículos autónomos

Vivimos en una etapa de constante desarrollo tecnológico, y aunque no es el único, uno de los desafíos que más preocupan a las ciudades del siglo XXI es el tráfico. En este trabajo fin de grado estudiaremos una de las posibles soluciones a este problema, la conducción autónoma. Para ello, realizaremos una puesta al día sobre las diferentes etapas que han existido sobre el tema, tratando desde los antecedentes hasta los futuros desarrollos, abordando también las diferentes investigaciones existentes o los sistemas de ayudas a la conducción disponibles.Departamento de Ingeniería EléctricaGrado en Ingeniería Eléctric

Sistema de control de tráfico para la coexistencia entre vehículos autónomos y manuales mediante comunicaciones inalámbricas

Premio Extraordinario de Doctorado 2012Los avances en el campo de los sistemas inteligentes de transporte (ITS, del inglés Intelligent Transportation Systems) en los últimos años han propiciado la aparición de sistemas que ayudan de manera significativa a los conductores facilitando su labor, relegándoles de tareas tediosas. No es demasiado utópico pensar en un futuro en vehículos completamente automatizados circulando por las carreteras. Sin embargo, se precisa de un sistema de transición desde los vehículos que actualmente circulan por las carreteras hasta los vehículos completamente automatizados y, por ende, la coexistencia entre ellos. En el presente trabajo de tesis doctoral se presenta el diseño, desarrollo e implementación de un sistema global para el control del tráfico con vehículos guiados por conductores humanos o automáticos basado en comunicaciones inalámbricas con un doble objetivo: en primer lugar, disminuir de manera significativa la congestión actual del tráfico, fundamentalmente en entornos urbanos, y en segundo lugar, presentar un sistema seguro que permita pensar en una reducción del número de accidentes en las carreteras o, al menos, mitigar las consecuencias. Para lograr los objetivos propuestos se utilizarán diversas fuentes de información ya sean ubicadas en los vehículos -sistemas de navegación global por satélite (GNSS, del inglés Global Navigation Satellite System), sistemas inerciales (IMU, del inglés Inertial Measurement Unit) o cámaras- o en la infraestructura -unidades de control, sensores para detectar situaciones del tráfico. La arquitectura presentada busca la escalabilidad para permitir de manera sencilla la inclusión de nuevos dispositivos que permitan mejorar las prestaciones. Para validar la solución propuesta, se presentan diferentes experimentos llevados a cabo con vehículos comerciales, algunos de ellos modificados para permitir el control automático de los mismos en la pista de pruebas del IAI-CSIC. Dichos experimentos incluyen situaciones habituales del tráfico como pueden ser la conducción en atascos, la gestión de preferencias en intersecciones sin señalización, la evasión de un peatón que se cruce en la carretera o la llegada a una curva peligrosa no señalizada. El sistema propuesto soluciona estas situaciones reales de tráfico de forma eficiente y segura. Como principales aportaciones se destacan el sistema de control local del tráfico al que se le dota de inteligencia para optimizar las comunicaciones inalámbricas, las mejoras conseguidas sobre la arquitectura de control de los vehículos y la presentación de sistemas para el control de situaciones de tráfico en entornos desestructurados

Assessing the sustainability performance of inter-urban intelligent transport

The implementation of ITS to increase the efficiency of saturated highways has become increasingly prevalent. It is a high level objective for many international governments and operators that highways should be managed in a way that is both sustainable i.e. environmental, social and economically sound and supportive of a Low-Carbon-Energy Future. Some clarity is therefore needed to understand how Intelligent Transport Systems perform within the constraints of that objective. This thesis describes the development of performance criteria that reflect the contributions of Information Communication Technology (ICT) emissions, vehicle emissions and the embedded carbon within the physical transport infrastructure that typically comprises three types of Intelligent Transport System. Active Traffic Management, Intelligent Speed Adaptation and the Automated Highway System are a collection of systems designed to transform the road network into a highly efficient and congestion free transport solution and all possess varying levels of uncertainty in terms of sustainability performance. The performance criteria form part of a new framework methodology ‘EnvFUSION’ (Environmental Fusion for ITS) outlined here. An attributional LCA and c-LCA (consequential lifecycle assessment) are both undertaken which forms part of a data fusion process using data from various sources. The models forecast improvements for the three ITS technologies in-line with social acceptability, economic profitability and major carbon reduction scenarios up to 2050 on one of the UK's most congested highways. Analytical Hierarchy Process and Dempster-Shafer theory are used to weight criteria which form part of an Intelligent Transport Sustainability Index. Overall performance is then synthesized. Results indicate that there will be a substantial increase in socio-economic and emissions benefits, provided that the policies are in place and targets are reached which would otherwise delay their realisation. To conclude, an integrated strategic performance management framework is proposed which performs socio-technical comparisons of four key performance areas between ITS schemes in order to identify energy and emission hotspots