Final Report Summary - OFAV (Open intelligent systems for Future Autonomous Vehicles)
The focus of this project is the creation of a new architecture for autonomous vehicles, built around a limited number of basic components. Each component can load plugins, and be extended by third parties. The World Perception Server collects information perceived by sensors with the purpose of providing a robust description of the world surrounding the vehicle, including self-position on the road, drivable areas, lane markings, traffic signs, vehicles, pedestrians, and obstacles. The Path Planner determines where the vehicle will move, depending on the road, the environment, and the final vehicle mission.
A first version of this architecture was implemented on a vehicle prototype named BRAiVE, which was already available before the start of this project. Part of the technology installed on BRAiVE was then redeployed to set up other five electric minivans (one as a prototype and 4 as real test vehicles). Each of them was equipped with seven cameras, three single-plane laserscanners, one four-planes laserscanner, and a GPS+GLONASS+IMU+V2V unit. Three PCs in the trunk provide the necessary computational power to run the whole system. The whole autonomous driving system is powered by solar energy.
A planetary trip was conceived with the purpose of testing this technology in the largest possible set of cases, including different weather, road conditions, traffic patterns, and scenarios. The expedition using the four autonomous minivans -and 7 other support vehicles- left on July 20, 2010 from Milano, traversed Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Hungary, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, and reached Shanghai, China, where on October 26 the vehicles entered the World Expo. They were hosted by ERC and the EU into the European Union pavilion and participated to the final Parade.
The vehicles were also recording data from all their sensors. The data, recorded on hard disks, were then used to improve the perception layer in a number of unconventional situations.
The improved version of the system was then further challenged in an urban environment (downtown Parma) in July 2013, at the end of the project. BRAiVE left the University campus and drove itself –with no human intervention- to Parma downtown area in total safety.
Both experiments (VIAC – the VisLab Intercontinental Autonomous Challenge, and PROUD – Public ROad Urban Driving autonomous car test) attracted a large interest from the whole globe and are now considered worldwide milestones in the field of autonomous driving.
The experiments’ websites are www.viac.vislab.it and www.vislab.it/proud
A first version of this architecture was implemented on a vehicle prototype named BRAiVE, which was already available before the start of this project. Part of the technology installed on BRAiVE was then redeployed to set up other five electric minivans (one as a prototype and 4 as real test vehicles). Each of them was equipped with seven cameras, three single-plane laserscanners, one four-planes laserscanner, and a GPS+GLONASS+IMU+V2V unit. Three PCs in the trunk provide the necessary computational power to run the whole system. The whole autonomous driving system is powered by solar energy.
A planetary trip was conceived with the purpose of testing this technology in the largest possible set of cases, including different weather, road conditions, traffic patterns, and scenarios. The expedition using the four autonomous minivans -and 7 other support vehicles- left on July 20, 2010 from Milano, traversed Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Hungary, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, and reached Shanghai, China, where on October 26 the vehicles entered the World Expo. They were hosted by ERC and the EU into the European Union pavilion and participated to the final Parade.
The vehicles were also recording data from all their sensors. The data, recorded on hard disks, were then used to improve the perception layer in a number of unconventional situations.
The improved version of the system was then further challenged in an urban environment (downtown Parma) in July 2013, at the end of the project. BRAiVE left the University campus and drove itself –with no human intervention- to Parma downtown area in total safety.
Both experiments (VIAC – the VisLab Intercontinental Autonomous Challenge, and PROUD – Public ROad Urban Driving autonomous car test) attracted a large interest from the whole globe and are now considered worldwide milestones in the field of autonomous driving.
The experiments’ websites are www.viac.vislab.it and www.vislab.it/proud