Designing cooperative interaction of automated vehicles with other road users in mixed traffic environments

Project Information

interACT

Grant agreement ID: 723395

DOI

10.3030/723395

Project closed

EC signature date 4 April 2017

Start date 1 May 2017

End date 30 September 2020

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Smart, Green And Integrated Transport

Total cost

€ 5 527 581,25

EU contribution

€ 5 527 581,25

Coordinated by

DEUTSCHES ZENTRUM FUR LUFT - UND RAUMFAHRT EV
Germany

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - interACT (Designing cooperative interaction of automated vehicles with other road users in mixed traffic environments)

Reporting period: 2018-11-01 to 2020-09-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

There is a high desire by manufacturers to introduce Automated Vehicles (AVs) to the market. As AVs are likely to be deployed in mixed traffic, they need to interact safely and efficiently with other road users. AVs can´t communicate their intentions to other road users. This limitation currently reduces their appeal and value to the user. To ensure intuitive and cooperative interaction between AVs and others, and a flow all traffic, it is essential that there is good means of communication between all actors. The main objective of interACT was to improve this cooperation strategy of AVs. For achieving this, the interACT project worked on the following objectives:
Develop social-psychological models to compile a catalogue of interactions, identifying the main communication needs of road users in current and future traffic Improve software algorithms and sensor capabilities for enhancing intention recognition and behaviour prediction of other road users
Develop a Cooperation and Communication Planning Unit to integrate planning algorithms, providing synchronized and integrated communication protocols Ensure safety of road users by developing easy-to-verify software for a safety layer, and novel methods for fail-safe trajectory planning Establish and refine evaluation methods for studying interaction of road user with AVs and user acceptance and assessing cooperation.
interACT developed prototypes that were demonstrated and evaluated in simulators and test vehicles, assessing ease-of-use, acceptance, safety and reliability. The project showed that the interACT solutions could help to improve safety and comprehensibility of the interaction of the AV with other road users and the on-board user.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The project started by defining its use cases and scenarios for which the interaction between AVs, the on-board user and other road users have a high impact. This led to four urban must-have use cases related to intersections and parking areas. Thereafter, we conducted our observational studies on current human-human interaction at sites in UK, Greece and Germany. Human interaction behavior was assessed to better understand what the key characteristics of behavior in mixed traffic environments are. The data were used to identify the interaction requirements and thresholds, to model these interactions and to enhance intention recognition algorithms. Afterwards we develop the Cooperation and Communication Planning Unit (CCPU). This is the central intelligence for enabling the vehicle to interact with its on-board user and the other road users according to their expectations. The CCPU consists of four software modules and one enabler: Situation Matching,
Interaction Planning, Trajectory Planning and Safety Layer modules as well as the Scenarios’ digital catalogue. The software components were integrated in the interACT demonstrator vehicle to allow interaction with other road users. In parallel, we worked on the Human-Machine Interaction (HMI) solutions to govern the interaction of the AV with others. Based on the outcomes of the observational studies we derived generic interaction strategies and general HMI messages to enhance the cooperation and safe interaction of the AV. We developed two HMI hardware solutions, the 360° light-band and the directed signal lamp.
All newly developed software and hardware components were integrated into the two demonstrator vehicles. Several evaluation studies in simulators, on test track and as real-world study were conducted to evaluate the effects of the interACT solutions and the preparation of the evaluation studies. The modelling work and the evaluation studies showed the potential benefit of the interACT solutions with regards to safety, comprehensibility of interaction and traffic flow for the human- AV interaction.
For dissemination and exploitation several activities have been undertaken. interACT has a well perceived presence on the internet with a website, linkedin, twitter, facebook and has distributed e-newsletters during the project. Journal and conference papers have further raised awareness. interACT has also established a lively information exchange with its stakeholder group. In addition, interACT was engaged in the US-EC twinning with its US twinning project AVintent and is closely collaborating with Japanese partners from the SIP-Adus project. The project was also exchanging information with other projects in this area such as TrustVehicle, BRAVE, L3Pilot, inMotion, @City. For the further exploitation of the technical results interACT partners were actively engaged in the discussion of the related ISO, SAE, GTB Lighting standardization groups to ensure that the project results are taken into account.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

By using the data of the observational studies the project has derived psychological models of interaction applicable to all traffic scenarios targeted by interACT. The data allowed us to set up a “catalogue” of both explicit communication means and implicit cues used to understand behavior. Quantitative interaction models allowed the in-depth study of interaction scenarios in computer simulations also for other scenarios. Project partners improved algorithms by using data of on-board sensors (video, LIDAR, radar and ultrasonic sensors) for intention recognition and behaviour prediction of other road users. The results include a new approach of using V2X technology and mobile phone data as input to assess the potential behaviour of other road users and a long-term prediction of pedestrian behaviour (> 3sec ) using environment analysis and a-priori knowledge from the psychological interaction models. The project work resulted in the definition of three interaction strategies for AV interaction that influences the further design work of the project. Partners also developed explicit HMI messages in combination with implicit behavioural cues of the AV for the safe interaction with other road users. With regards to hardware products, the project develope two new products, the 360° lighting system and the directed signal lamp. Our safety solution considered uncertainty and thus does not require any new sensors. A safety layer which always provides a fall back solution for reaching a safe state was developed. This was done by using novel on-the-fly techniques that drastically reduce the need for testing and thus, the verification costs. Only the safety layer requires certification. All software and hardware developments were successfully integrated, tested and demonstrated in two demonstrator vehicles.
Additionally, project partners delivered experimental setups and test regimes to assessthe quality of interaction and cooperation by simulator and real vehicle studies and defined quantitative and qualitative metrics to support these assessments regarding acceptability, efficiency and safety. interACT solutions were tested and showed the that they can significantly support the short-term introduction of AVs in mixed traffic environments. All project solutions could foster an increased societal acceptance of AVs via improving ease-of-use, road safety and traffic flow. Industrial project partners are enabled to fully exploit project findings, increasing the potential benefit, sale and adoption of AVs. With leading manufacturers such as BMW, BOSCH, CRF and HELLA on board, the project has the ability to ensure results are integrated at a fast pace, allowing Europe to remain at the forefront of this research.

Objectives of the interACT project