ESTONIAN ACADEMY
PUBLISHERS
eesti teaduste
akadeemia kirjastus
PUBLISHED
SINCE 1952
 
Proceeding cover
proceedings
of the estonian academy of sciences
ISSN 1736-7530 (Electronic)
ISSN 1736-6046 (Print)
Impact Factor (2022): 0.9
Research article
Level 4 commercial autonomous vehicle control system transition to an open-source solution; pp. 124–133
PDF | https://doi.org/10.3176/proc.2024.2.05

Authors
Heiko Pikner, Raivo Sell, Ehsan Malayjerdi
Abstract

This paper introduces a novel approach for transferring the entire set of low-level control systems from one robot bus, i.e., an autonomous vehicle (AV) shuttle, to another with distinct electronics and mechanical specifications. The research entails a series of experiments to assess the reliability and safety of the AV shuttle after integrating the critical control systems responsible for steering, accelerating, and braking into the target shuttle. The ultimate goal is to meet the necessary requirements for registering the target AV shuttle as a legal vehicle on the roads in Estonia. Consequently, several crucial tests of the shuttle’s low-level control system were conducted, e.g., intentionally disconnecting different subsystems to simulate sudden failures and evaluate whether the shuttle responds in accordance with the appropriate protocols. As a case study, the upgraded autonomous shuttle was tested on the streets of Tallinn. The most relevant findings are introduced in the second part of this paper. The outcomes of the study demonstrate the feasibility of seamlessly transferring low-level control systems between various models of autonomous shuttles, eliminating the risk of encountering safety or reliability issues.

References

1. Wetmore, J. Driving the dream. The history and motivations behind 60 years of automated highway systems in America. Automot. Hist. Rev., 2003, 7, 4–19.

2. Broggi, A., Bertozzi, M., Fascioli, A. and Conte, G. Automatic Vehicle Guidance: the Experience of the ARGO Autonomous Vehicle. World Scientific, 1999.
https://doi.org/10.1142/3986

3. Buehler, M., Iagnemma, K. and Singh, S. (eds). The DARPA Urban Challenge: Autonomous Vehicles in City Traffic. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2009.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-03991-1

4. Bertozzi, M., Bombini, L., Broggi, A., Buzzoni, M., Cardarelli, E., Cattani, S. et al. Viac: an out of ordinary experiment. In Proceedings of the 2011 IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV), Baden-Baden, Germany, 5–9 June 2011. IEEE, 2011, 175–180.
https://doi.org/10.1109/IVS.2011.5940531

5. Broggi, A., Buzzoni, M., Debattisti, S., Grisleri, P., Laghi, M. C., Medici, P. et al. Extensive tests of autonomous driving technologies. IEEE Trans. Intell. Transp. Syst., 2013, 14(3), 1403–1415.
https://doi.org/10.1109/TITS.2013.2262331

6. Zhang, J. and Singh, S. Laser–visual–inertial odometry and mapping with high robustness and low drift. J. Field Robot., 2018, 35(8), 1242–1264.
https://doi.org/10.1002/rob.21809

7. Gao, H., Cheng, B., Wang, J., Li, K., Zhao, J. and Li, D. Object classification using CNN-based fusion of vision and LiDAR in autonomous vehicle environment. IEEE Trans. Industr. Inform., 2018, 14(9), 4224–4231.
https://doi.org/10.1109/TII.2018.2822828

8. Rassõlkin, A., Vaimann, T., Kallaste, A. and Sell, R. Propulsion motor drive topology selection for further development of ISEAUTO self-driving car. In Proceedings of the 2018 IEEE 59th International Scientific Conference on Power and Electrical Engineering of Riga Technical University (RTUCON), Riga, Latvia, 12–13 November 2018. IEEE, 2018, 1–5.
https://doi.org/10.1109/RTUCON.2018.8659887

9. Pikner, H., Sell, R., Majak, J. and Karjust, K. Safety system assessment case study of automated vehicle shuttle. Electronics, 2022, 11(7). 
https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics11071162 
https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9292/11/7/1162

10. Wei, J., Snider, J. M., Kim, J., Dolan, J. M., Rajkumar, R. and Litkouhi, B. Towards a viable autonomous driving research platform. In Proceedings of the 2013 IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV), Gold Coast, QLD, Australia, 23–26 June 2013. IEEE, 2013, 763–770.
https://doi.org/10.1109/IVS.2013.6629559

11. Pikner, H. and Karjust, K. Multi-layer cyber-physical low-level control solution for mobile robots. IOP Conf. Ser.: Mater. Sci. Eng., 2021, 1140, 012048.
https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899X/1140/1/012048

12. Bellone, M., Ismailogullari, A., Müür, J., Nissin, O., Sell, R. and Soe, R.-M. Autonomous driving in the real-world: the weather challenge in the Sohjoa Baltic project. In Towards Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Highways (Hamid, U. Z. A. and Al-Turjman, F., eds). Springer, Cham, 2021, 229–255.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66042-0_9

13. Sell, R., Soe, R.-M., Wang, R. and Rassõlkin, A. Autonomous vehicle shuttle in smart city testbed. In Intelligent System Solutions for Auto Mobility and Beyond. AMAA 2020 (Zachäus, C. and Meyer, G., eds). Springer, Cham, 2021, 143–157.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65871-7_11

14. Pikner, H., Sell, R., Karjust, K., Malayjerdi, E. and Velsker, T. Cyber-physical control system for autonomous logistic robot. In Proceedings of the 2021 IEEE 19th International Power Electronics and Motion Control Conference (PEMC), Gliwice, Poland, 25–29 April 2021. IEEE, 2021, 699–704.
https://doi.org/10.1109/PEMC48073.2021.9432526

15. Rehrl, K. and Zankl, C. Digibus©: results from the first self-driving shuttle trial on a public road in Austria. Eur. Transp. Res. Rev., 2018, 10(2), 1–11.
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12544-018-0326-4

16. Texas Instruments. Introduction to the controller area network (CAN). Application Report SLOA101B, 2002. 
https://www.ti.com/lit/an/sloa101b/sloa101b.pdf

17. Chi, H., Liu, J., Xu, W., Peng, M. and deGoicoechea, J. Design hands-on lab exercises for cyber-physical systems security education. CISSE, 2022, 9(1), 1–8.
https://doi.org/10.53735/cisse.v9i1.140

18. Viloria, A., Acuña, G. C., Franco, D. J. A., Hernández-Palma, H., Fuentes, J. P. and Rambal, E. P. Integration of data mining techniques to PostgreSQL database manager system. Procedia Comput. Sci., 2019, 155, 575–580.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2019.08.080

Back to Issue