Toward automated driving in cities using close-to-market sensors: An overview of the V-Charge Project

Abstract

Future requirements for drastic reduction of CO2 production and energy consumption will lead to significant changes in the way we see mobility in the years to come. However, the automotive industry has identified significant barriers to the adoption of electric vehicles, including reduced driving range and greatly increased refueling times.Automated cars have the potential to reduce the environmental impact of driving, and increase the safety of motor vehicle travel. The current state-of-the-art in vehicle automation requires a suite of expensive sensors. While the cost of these sensors is decreasing, integrating them into electric cars will increase the price and represent another barrier to adoption.The V-Charge Project, funded by the European Commission, seeks to address these problems simultaneously by developing an electric automated car, outfitted with close-to-market sensors, which is able to automate valet parking and recharging for integration into a future transportation system. The final goal is the demonstration of a fully operational system including automated navigation and parking. This paper presents an overview of the V-Charge system, from the platform setup to the mapping, perception, and planning sub-systems.

Simultaneous Localization and Mapping: A Survey of Current Trends in Autonomous Driving

“…Another open question raised here but not addressed is the map portability between different vehicles. Still in the V-Charge project, [260] completed this system with height maps built from stereovision. A semantic map and a road graph were also needed to identify parking places and how to navigate between them.…”

Hybrid Optimization-Based Approach for Multiple Intelligent Vehicles Requests Allocation

“…For instance, Mercedes with the Bertha project proved the viability of autonomous vehicles in German roads based on advance sensing capabilities [11]. The V-Charge project researches in the direction of allowing automated valet parking for self-driving cars [12]. Moreover, several vehicle manufacturers have proposed different solutions in the field of autonomous vehicles which are close to markets, such as BMW and Audi [13], Mercedes-Benz [14], and Volvo [15].…”

Demo: Automated valet parking and charging

“…This implies three major fields of research: (i) vehicle functionality, e.g., on-board localization and planning, (ii) logistics, scheduling of parking and charging resources, and (iii) infrastructure, a secure and reliable framework to store and share a database of parking area information. [1] In this demo, we present a research and development platform showcasing the abovementioned aspects of the actual V-Charge project while also providing an educational tool for students to learn about automated driving, localization, and vehicular communications. Our platform consists of a vehicle system, that is based on a 6-wheel-drive chassis equipped with a computing and sensor platform, as well as a server system, providing the vehicle with mission goals and a remote monitoring station.…”