Communications par Lumière Visible et Radio pour la Conduite Coopéraive Autonome: application à la conduite en convois.

By realizing both low-cost implementationand dual functionality, VLC has becomean outstanding intriguing supportivetechnology by using the vehicular existedinfrastructure.This thesis aims to contribute to theautonomous vehicular communicationand urban mobility improvements. Thework addresses the main radio-basedV2V communication limitations and challengesfor ITS hard-safety applicationsand intends to deploy the vehicular lightingsystem as a supportive communicationsolution for platooning of IVCenabledautonomous vehicles. The ultimateobjectives of this Ph.D. researchare to integrate the VLC system withinthe existing C-ITS architecture by developinga VLC prototype, together withsufficient hand-over algorithms enablingVLC, RF, and perception-based solutionsin order to ensure the maximumsafety requirements and the continuousinformation exchange between vehicles.The feasibility and efficiency of thesystem implementation and hand-overalgorithms were subjects to deep investigationsusing computer simulators andtest-bed that considers applications ofautomated driving. In addition to the improvementin road capacity when platoonformations are used. The carried outsimulations followed-up by experimentalresults proved that the integration of VLCwith the existed RF solutions lead to adefinite benefit in the communicationchannel quality and safety requirementsof a platooning system when a properhand-over algorithm is used.La communication par lumière visibleVLC est devenue une technologie attractivevu qu’elle assure une implémentationà faible coût et une doublefonctionnalité. En effet, elle permetd’utiliser l’infrastructure déjà existantesur le véhicule à savoir les lampesd’arrière et frontales comme des unitésde transmission. Cette thèse s’intéresseà rendre plus efficace les communicationsdes véhicules autonomes ainsi quela gestion de la mobilité urbaine. Nousnous intéressons tout d’abord aux principaleslimitations des communicationsradio sans fil dans le contexte des applicationsde sécurité routière à hautes exigences.Nous nous concentrons ensuiteau déploiement d’un système d’éclairagesur les véhicules dans le but de fournir unmoyen de communication de soutien auxcommunications radio pour l’applicationde peloton. L’objectif primordial decette thèse est d’intégrer la technologieVLC dans l’architecture de communicationITS en implémentant un prototypede communication VLC et en concevantde nouveaux algorithmes de handoverpermettant une transition transparenteentre différents moyens de communicationinter-véhiculaires (VLC, communicationsans fil et techniques de perception).Le but est d’assurer les exigencesde sécurité requises par les applicationset l’échange continue de l’informationentre véhicules. L’efficacité de ces algorithmesa été validée à travers de nombreusessimulations et test-bed réels aucours desquels nous avons considérél’application de conduite automatisée.Ces différentes méthodes de validationont démontré que l’intégration de la technologieVLC avec les solutions de communicationsradio permet d’améliorer laqualité du canal de transmission ainsique la satisfaction des exigences de sécuritérelatives à l’application de peloton

The Use of Lane-Centering to Ensure the Visible Light Communication Connectivity for a Platoon of Autonomous Vehicles

International audienceThe new emerging Visible Light Communication (VLC) technology has been subjected to intensive investigation, evaluation, and lately, deployed in the context of convoy-based applications for Intelligent Transportations Systems (ITS). The technology limitations were defined and supported by different solution proposals to enhance the crucial alignment and mobility limitations. In this paper, we propose to incorporate VLC technology and the Lane-Centering (LC) technique to ensure the VLC-connectivity by keeping the autonomous vehicle aligned to the lane center using vision-based lane detection in a convoy-based formation. As soon as the road lanes are detectable, the evaluated system showed stable behavior independently of the inter-vehicle distances and without the need to exchange information between vehicles. Such a combination can ensure the optical communication connectivity with a lateral error of less than 30 cm. The evaluation of the proposed system is verified using VLC prototype and an empirical result of an LC active application over 60 km on the Madrid M40 highway

Platooning Control Using Visible Light Communications: A Feasibility Study

International audienceThe major benefits of driving vehicles in controlled close formations such as platoons are that of increasing traffic fluidity and reducing air pollution. While V2V communications is requisite for platooning stability, the existing radio commu- nications technologies (e.g., the IEEE 802.11p) suffer from poor performance in highly dense road scenarios, which are exactly to be created by platooning. This paper studies the applicability of visible light communications (VLC) system for information exchange between the platoon members. A complete VLC model is built enabling precise calculations of Bit-Error-Rate (BER) affected by inter-vehicle distance, background noise, incidence angle and receiver electrical bandwidth. Based on our analytical model, the optical parameters suiting platooning application are defined. Finally, a SIMULINK model is devel- oped to study the performances of a platooning longitudinal and lateral control, where VLC is used for vehicle-to-vehicle information exchange. Our study demonstrates the feasibility of VLC-based platooning control even in the presence of optical noise at significant levels and up to certain degree of road curvature

Platoon Control Using VLC: A Feasibility Study.

National audienceThe major benefits of driving vehicles in controlled close formations such as platoons are that of increasing traffic fluidity and reducing air pollution. While vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications is requisite for platooning stability, the existing radio communications technologies (e.g., the IEEE 802.11p) suffer from poor performance in highly dense road scenarios, which are exactly to be created by platooning. This paper studies the applicability of visible light communications (VLC) system for information exchange between the platoon members. A complete VLC model is built enabling precise calculations of Bit-Error-Rate (BER) affected by inter-vehicle distance, background noise, incidence angle and receiver electrical bandwidth. Based on our analytical model, the optical parameters suiting platooning application are defined. Finally, a SIMULINK model is developed to study the performances of a platooning longitudinal and lateral control, where VLC is used for V2V information exchange. Our study demonstrates the feasibility of VLC-based platooning control even in the presence of optical noise at significant levels and up to a certain road curvature

A Proposal for VLC-Assisting IEEE802.11p Communication for Vehicular Environment Using a Prediction-based Handover

International audienceDespite years of development and deployment, the standardized IEEE802.11p communication for vehicular networks can be pushed toward insatiable performance demands for wireless network data access, with a remarkable increase of both latency and channel congestion levels when subjected to scenarios with a very high vehicle density. In some hard safety applications such as convoys, IEEE802.11p could seriously fail to meet the fundamental vehicular safety requirements. On the other hand, the advent of LED technologies has opened up the possibility of leveraging the more robust Visible Light Communication (VLC) technology to assist IEEE802.11p and provide seamless connectivity in dense vehicular scenarios. In this paper, we propose and validate a prediction-based vertical handover (PVHO) between VLC and IEEE802.11p meant to afford seamless switching and ensure the autonomous driving safety requirements. Algorithm validation and platoon system performance were evaluated using a specially implemented 802.11p-VLC module in the NS3 Network Simulator. The simulation results showed a speed-based dynamic redundancy before and after VLC interruptions with seamless switching. Moreover, the deployment of VLC for platoon intra-communication can achieve a 10-25% PDR gain in high-density vehicular scenarios

Study and Evaluation of Laser-based Perception and Light Communication for a Platoon of Autonomous Vehicles

International audience— Visible Light Communication (VLC) is a new emerging technology that is being proposed as a reliable and supportive choice for short range communications in ITS. On the same context, Laser Range Finders (LRF) sensors are used for the vehicular environment perception. Compared to VLC, LRF can provide more coverage range and extended viewing angle. To take the full advantages of both technologies features, this paper studies and demonstrate the proposal of using VLC for information exchange among the platoon members and LRF for inter-vehicle distance estimation. A handover algorithm is proposed to manage the switching process for any failure occurrence by assessing LRF and VLC performance using three different metrics: LRF confidence value, vehicles angular orientation, and the VLC link latency. The evaluation of the proposed system is verified using VLC prototype and Pro-SiVIC Simulator driving platoon of two autonomous vehicles over different curvature scenarios. Our results show that the proposed combination are extending the VLC limitations and satisfying the platooning requirement. However, in the very sharp curvature, LRF was capable of driving the platoon except for the 90° curve scenario, the system experienced non-stable behaviour due to the LRF area of interest limitation

Enhancing the Field of View Limitation of Visible Light Communication-based Platoon

International audienceVisible Light Communication (VLC) technology have recently been suggested as efficient supportive technology for platooning applications over short inter vehicle distances. Though, ensuring the continuity of Line-of-Sight (LOS) of any optical-based applications is one of the most complex scenarios for an autonomous vehicle control, and still remains as an open challenge for Intelligent Transformation Systems (ITS). Exchanging information about the relative directional position of each member of the platoon, together with front and rear facing directions of each vehicle, can be very useful data for building a smooth geometrical-based compensation method, which results in ensuring that any increase in both incidence and irradiance optical angles will never exceed the Field of View (FOV) limitations and regardless of the trajectory shape. This paper propose a tracking alike compensation method of four vehicles equipped with positioning and VLC systems. We have simulated different scenarios related to different trajectories and compensation angles limits. The simulation results show that trajectories influence on the optical incidence and irradiance angles can be compensated efficiently and without deploying any tracking method

WAVE Low Latency Video Streaming for Platooning Safety Real-Time Application

International audienceThe use of Wireless Access in Vehicular Environ- ments (WAVE) technology for exchanging information between vehicles can positively influence the drivers behavior towards safer driving by reducing road accidents and improving driving performance. These exchanged information are more relevant to safety applications if presented as a real-time and high quality video stream. In this paper, we demonstrate the low latency video streaming as a safety application for platoon and reverse parking scenarios. The use of streaming safety application provides an additional tool to the platoon drivers to see the road traffic conditions. It helps the driver to make safer decision and reduce the overtaken risks during a manual overtaking maneuver for instance (i.e platoon output)

AUTOCITS – Regulation study for interoperability in the adoption of autonomous driving in European urban nodes

International audienceThe technological advances of autonomous and connected road vehicles have been shown an accelerating pace in the recent years. On the other hand, the regulations for autonomous, or driverless, road vehicles across Europe still deserve much attention and discussion. In this paper, we introduce the AUTOCITS project which has the main goals of conducting studies on the regulations for the adoption of autonomous cars in Europe, and also to carry out C-ITS Pilots in Madrid, Paris and Lisbon. AUTOCITS aims to contribute, directly or indirectly, to European related policy and reference documents on vehicle automation, regulations, connected and automated driving, and related road infrastructure issues due to the trend towards higher levels of connectivity and automation, where information provided via C-ITS can be truly catalyst for connected and autonomous driving. The project will specially focus on the communication links performance and connectivity between automated vehicles using C-ITS applications connectivity and automation ;, in particular, applications increase surrounding environment awareness in relation to infrastructure and ensure both road and driver safety requirements issues and using the regulation framework. AUTOCITS is an innovation project (CEF Program) that aims to facilitate the deployment of autonomous vehicles in urban nodes by developing intelligent transport services based on cooperative systems (C-ITS) that will enable vehicles, users and infrastructures to communicate, exchange, and share information

Visible light and radio communication for cooperative autonomous driving : applied to vehicle convoy

L'objectif de cette thèse CIFRE est de contribuer à la communication véhiculaire autonome et au développement de la mobilité urbaine. Les travaux sont basés sur les limitations et défis de la communication par radio pour les applications de sécurité et envisagent de déployer le système d'éclairage des véhicules en tant que solution de communication de soutien pour le platooning d'IVC-activées par VC Véhicules autonomes. L'objectif principale de cette recherche doctorale consiste à intégrer le système VLC dans l'architecture existante de C-ITS en développant un prototype VLC, ainsi que des algorithmes de transfert suffisants permettant VLC, RF et des solutions basées sur la perception afin d'assurer les exigences de sécurité maximales et l'échange continu d'informations entre les véhicules. La faisabilité et l'efficacité de la mise en oeuvre du système et des algorithmes de transfert ont fait l'objet de recherches approfondies sur six chapitres, destinés à faciliter une progression logique des matériaux et permettre un accès relativement facile. En plus de l'amélioration de la capacité routière en utilisant les systèmes de conduite autonome à la base de convoi. Les simulations réalisées ainsi que les résultats expérimentaux ont montré que l'intégration de VLC avec les solutions existantes RF a un avantage certain dans la qualité du canal de communication et les exigences de sécurité d'un système de platooning quand un algorithme approprié est utilisé.This thesis effort contributes to the autonomous vehicular communication and urban mobility improvements. The work addresses the main radio-based V2V communication limitations and challenges for ITS hard-safety applications and intends to deploy the vehicular lighting system as a supportive communication solution for platooning of IVC-enabled autonomous vehicles. The ultimate objectives of this Ph.D research are to integrate the VLC system within the existing C-ITS architecture by developing a VLC prototype, together with sufficient, hand-over algorithms enabling VLC, RF, and perception-based solutions in order to ensure the maximum safety requirements and the continuous information exchange between vehicles. The feasibility and efficiency of the VLC-RF system implementation and hand-over algorithms were subjects to deep investigations over six self-contained chapters meant to facilitate a logical progression of materials and to enable a relatively easy access. In addition to the improvement in road capacity by utilizing the convoy-based autonomous driving systems. The carried out simulations followed-up by experimental results proved that the integration of VLC with the existed RF solutions lead to a definite benefit in the communication channel quality and safety requirements of a platooning system when a proper hand-over algorithm is utilized