SciAutonics‐Auburn Engineering's low‐cost high‐speed ATV for the 2005 DARPA grand challenge

Abstract

This paper presents a summary of SciAutonics‐Auburn Engineering's efforts in the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge. The areas discussed in detail include the team makeup and strategy, vehicle choice, software architecture, vehicle control, navigation, path planning, and obstacle detection. In particular, the advantages and complications involved in fielding a low budget all‐terrain vehicle are presented. Emphasis is placed on detailing the methods used for high‐speed control, customized navigation, and a novel stereo vision system. The platform chosen required a highly accurate model and a well‐tuned navigation system in order to meet the demands of the Grand Challenge. Overall, the vehicle completed three out of four runs at the National Qualification Event and traveled 16 miles in the Grand Challenge before a hardware failure disabled operation. The performance in the events is described, along with a success and failure analysis. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Application and analysis of a robust trajectory tracking controller for under-characterized autonomous vehicles

“…With the recent activity in autonomous vehicle development at the DARPA Urban Challenge, many researchers ( [10], [11], [12]) are focusing on developing robust path tracking controllers. These controllers either are part of the path planning or incorporate the low-level steering and speed controllers.…”

Autonomous collision avoidance system based on accurate knowledge of the vehicle surroundings

“…There are several initiatives of X‐by‐Wire systems use as a low‐level control layer for autonomous vehicle control (e.g. [15, 16]) and there is a wide range of advanced driver assistance systems that require the automatic management of the vehicle actuators in order to correctly comply with their mission. Some examples are as follows, where some products are presently available as car equipment, developed by (original equipment manufacturer) OEMs: – Adaptive cruise control [17–20].…”

GPS and Inertial Systems for High Precision Positioning on Motorways

“…These types of systems are used in new generation autonomous vehicles like DARPA Grand Challenge's KAT-5 [6]. Other solutions for via-satellite differential correction are the SBAS (Satellite Based Augmentation Systems) such as the one used by the SciAutonics Team [7]. Unfortunately these satellite based systems have an important drawback: when they are used in urban environments, the tunnel effect caused by buildings can cause an important reduction in precision.…”