Technical Insight
Autonomous Vehicles - Insights into Development and Challenges Akarsh K A Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions
H
ow would you like it if your favorite car can drive you to your office daily without your intervention? Or if your car can drive you to your favorite restaurant while you spend leisure time with your family in the car? Have you ever thought about how we can make driving safer? If this excites you then there is some good news! The automotive world is in a race against time to make Autonomous Vehicles (AV) a reality. These vehicles are expected to make mobility more convenient and safe. However today only partially autonomous cars and trucks with varying amounts of self-automation exist. Movement of people and goods have always been a fundamental part of our lives since ages. Due to this, mobility has been a very important aspect to mankind and there have been numerous efforts to enhance the same. Since the time the wheels were invented, the way we move around has drastically changed. Today we are in a pursuit to enable mobility with more independence and intelligence in order to make it smart, convenient, safe and green.
46 | Telematics Wire | January 2021
So what is Autonomous Driving? Autonomous driving can be understood as handing over the vehicle guidance function and authority to a vehicle.The transfer of the guidance function may be for a limited location or a limited time and can potentially be interrupted by the driver. Basically, the autonomous vehicle is capable, without human assistance, of deciding the route, lane, and interventions in the driving dynamics like braking or steering. Such a function is subject to both technical and social requirements. Implicitly an autonomous vehicle must pose no greater danger than a vehicle controlled by a person! The level of autonomy of a self-driving car refers to how much of the driving is done by a computer versus a human. The higher the level, the more of the driving that is done by a computer. SAE International (Society of Automotive Engineers) provides taxonomy and definitions for different levels of Driving Automation. Six levels are defined starting with Level 0 (No driving automation) up to Level 5 (Full driving automation). Self-driving cars can be further distinguished as being connected or not, indicating whether they can communicate
with other vehicles and/or infrastructure, such as next generation traffic lights. Most prototypes do not currently have this capability.
Design considerations for development of AVs Though the design details for autonomous vehicles widely vary, one way to equip the vehicles with intelligence is to mimic the capabilities of human information processing itself on the vehicle through reliable models. This involves capturing the real world data through sensors (Sensing), transforming the data into a cognitive representation (Perceive) and Interpretation of the information through which decisions can be taken on the reaction (Stimulus). It is necessary to perform this cycle continuously with the highest precision by overcoming the timing and hardware resource constraints. In addition interior or driver monitoring further enhances safety by detecting driver drowsiness or distraction. Capturing of real world data includes all processes relating to the discovery and recognition of relevant information. During driving the most significant inputs are the visual, acoustic and tactile information that are realized through sensory organs of eyes, ears and skin receptors respectively. This cooperative sensing is realized with use of environmental sensors and technologies like RADAR, Video, Lidar, GPS and V2X (Vehicle to Everything. See picture below). Equally important is to capture the information of the vehicle under test. This is accomplished by continuously reading information from vehicle sensors like wheel speed, yaw-rate or steering wheel angles sensors.
