June 2002
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June 2002 |
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Demo 2002
Showcases French Accomplishments in Smart Car Technology With Demo 2002, held June 20-21 in Versailles, the French have placed themselves solidly on the map of advanced R&D in the Intelligent Vehicle domain. The demo, in conjunction with the IEEE Intelligent Vehicles 2002 technical conference, provided an opportunity for French research labs and commercial developers to strut their stuff. Along for the ride (and the riding) were a wide-ranging set of additional demonstration vehicles from Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom. |
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See also the IVsource article on the accompanying IV2002 conference in Versailles, France |
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With
Demo 2002, held June 20-21 in Versailles, the French have placed themselves
solidly on the map of advanced R&D in the Intelligent Vehicle domain.
The demo, in conjunction with the IEEE Intelligent Vehicles 2002
technical conference, provided an opportunity for French research labs and
commercial developers to strut their stuff to over 200 technical experts,
government officials, and the news media. Along
for the ride were a wide-ranging set of additional vehicle demonstrations from
Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
Functions demonstrated included Adaptive Cruise Control, Obstacle
Detection and Avoidance, Automatic Lane Detection and Steering, Active
Headlights, and fully automated Public Transportation Systems.
Participants included French labs LIVIC, INRIA, and Ecole De
Mines; the Dutch lab TNO; and commercial players DAF trucks,
DaimlerChrysler, Frog Systems, MAN trucks, Peugeot, Renault, Robosoft,
TRW, and Valeo.
Versailles is well-known within Europe as a center of vehicle R&D, as Renault, Peugeot, DaimlerChrysler, and others have major research facilities there. It is also the home of the Institute for Research in Information and Automation (INRIA) and the Laboratory for the Interaction between Vehicles, Infrastructure and Drivers (LIVIC). The latter was jointly established in the late 90’s between the French National Institute for Transport and Safety Research (INRETS) and the Laboratory for Bridges and Roads (LCPC)). The demo was organized by LIVIC and held on the grounds of their facility, which includes a vehicle test track. Under the direction of LIVIC Director Jean-Marc Blosseville, the intent of the demo was to show commercial products, developmental products, and the results of academic research. Unlike the more highly produced demonstrations in Japan and the US in years past, Demo 2002 was intentionally more “loose,” with less preparation time and polish by participants. In this way, more technical organizations could participate without overly distracting their technical staff with the months of preparation that can sometimes be invested in a highly produced demo – in fact, some of the participants at Demo 2002 took the state of their current research and packaged it for demo purposes in only a matter of weeks.
Click
here for a larger graphic of the Demo 2002 test track at LIVIC-Satory Future Demos, Take Note A welcome new approach to vehicle demos was
also successfully applied: vehicle maneuvers were relayed live, via video feed,
to a large conference room. In this
way, the technical aspects of the vehicle systems could be described by expert
developers, followed by the live video demonstration. In the space of only a few minutes, over one hundred
attendees could get a direct feel for the vehicle systems, without leaving their
chairs. This innovation appears to
be an improvement over past demos in which the only way to experience the
vehicles was to ride in them, creating a logistics nightmare as each 10-15
minute ride could only accommodate 3 persons maximum. In addition to the video-based experiences, it was also
possible to get rides on demo vehicles, the old way, on an ad-hoc basis. From all appearances, the Demo was
thoroughly successful, as technical experts, government officials, and the news
media experienced advanced vehicle perception and control functions in vehicle
types ranging from passenger cars to heavy trucks to automated personal public
transportation vehicles. Approximately
200 people attended each day, as well as 30-40 media outlets and French
television. Individual demos were
not flawless, yet the message was clearly communicated that intelligent vehicle
technology will play a major role in increasing the safety of road travel and
improving quality of life. Human Targets For the first time in a public demonstration, some of the targets were actually humans! For better or for worse, the young corps of PhD researchers were intent on demonstrating their obstacle detection systems with real targets, so they repeatedly offered themselves on foot and on bicycles to emulate the real situation of cars in a dense city street environment. In every case -- we are pleased to report -- detection was successful and vehicles initiated emergency braking and stopped. Laser Scanners Under Every Bumper The new darling of intelligent vehicle researchers is the laser scanner, which can provide highly accurate 270-degree imaging and ranging; this offers data not available from radar or machine vision and opening the way to more robust vehicle systems. IBEO of Germany is in the enviable position of being the only supplier of such devices for the automotive market; however, with basic systems selling for $15K -- and second generation systems at $30K -- it will be a while before laser scanner-equipped vehicles move into the marketplace. Nevertheless, the same could be said of radar only a decade ago. IBEO is heavily involved in European research programs such as CARSENSE, CHAMELON, and PROTECTOR to develop more fully the potential of sensing with laser scanners. IBEO reps boasted that not one, but about ten, of their systems graced the various demo vehicles at Demo 2002. See www.ibeo-as.de for more information.
Ibeo laser scanner sitting snugly in the left center of this Alfa Romeo’s bumper Numerous Research Labs Show Advanced
Capabilities The European research community was out in
full force at the demo. Here’s a
look at the wide variety of smart car systems shown. LIVIC
Vehicles The LIVIC lab now consists of about 25 researchers, focused on improving the general performance of the Vehicle-Infrastructure-Driver system through driver assistance systems and vehicle automation. They have employed stereo vision to implement “robust, real-time, and generic” road obstacle detection. Using a technique called “v-disparity,” obstacles such as pedestrians, motorcycles, and bicycles are detected in a range of 3 - 40 meters (10-130 feet) ahead of the vehicle. Vehicles were programmed to stop for obstacles or to follow a preceding vehicle (emulating stop and go traffic conditions). Demo participants riding in the LIVIC cars saw a large computer screen that displayed the road scene ahead as a green area, unless an obstacle was detected. When obstacles -- including people and bikes -- were detected, the area of less than two seconds time-to-collision was shown in red; if the car reached the red zone, emergency braking was initiated to execute a stop. The system appeared to perform reliably even when a box was shoved out of a preceding vehicle to simulate a “dropped load” condition on a highway. Additionally, LIVIC has implemented automatic lane detection and steering using the fusion of data from machine vision, satellite positioning, and on-board inertial measurement. See www.inrets.fr/ur/livic/ for more information. INRETS LESCOT This ergonomics laboratory has been examining the ability of the driver to interact safety and efficiently with vehicle information systems. Their demonstrator system showed an ability to ascertain the driver’s availability to receive information, as well as management of vocal messages to the driver. See www.inrets.fr for more information. University de Haute-Alsace Researchers from UHA exhibited BASIL,
a tool for driver behavior analysis. BASIL
is an instrumented car that measures the driver’s eye positioning and gaze, as
well as vehicle dynamics and positioning. The
intent of the project is to better understand the driver’s placement of
attention as the driving task is performed. In addition, a UHA system called NADINE
uses differential GPS and digital mapping, along with road sensors, to identify
an upcoming curve, calculate the optimum safe speed for the curve, and slow the
vehicle if needed to match that speed. The
system is envisioned to work with normal cruise control, so that a driver can
depend on the vehicle system to slow the vehicle for curves and then resume
cruise control set speed. INRIA – Rocquencourt INRIA has several facilities, and researchers at Rocquencourt have instrumented a vehicle with an electric steering column to actuate steering, along with binocular and trinocular vision processing and a laser scanner. Their investigations focus on detecting obstacles and lane markers. More information at www.inria.fr. Ecole Nationale Superieure des Mines de Paris The famous 'School of Mines' is an elite engineering school that has been around since the days when engineering was largely related to construction of civil works for mining. The School's Robotics Center in Paris has been a leader in advanced vehicle research in France. The ENSMP vehicle is equipped with a single-color camera, radar, and steering/throttle/braking actuators. Sensor data is fused to implement automatic road lane detection and lateral control, in-vehicle display of roadside signs, and forward vehicle detection. For automated steering, the vehicle performed exceptionally well on the tight curves at the test track, and the vision system was also capable of directing a lane change (although at low speed). The EMSMP vehicle also provides full visibility to the driver, with the side and rear view mirrors replaced with video images in the dashboard, thereby eliminating blind spots. See www.caor.ensmp.fr for more information. LASMEA CNRS This French research lab showed a road
tracker based on machine vision technology. University of Southampton Transportation Research Group The UK research community was represented by TRG, which has done extensive work in understanding the impacts of advanced driver assistance systems on motorway traffic operations. They brought an instrumented vehicle to the demo, which is equipped to monitor the driver as well as surrounding traffic behavior. At their own test track facilities, they have been testing driver reactions to emergency maneuvers using a Surrogate Vehicle fiberglass mock-up which can be “hit” by test drivers with no danger/damage, if needed in emulating a critical situation. See www.trg.soton.ac.uk for more information. Instituto de Automatica Industrial Part of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology, IAI surprised some with their AUTOPIA automated vehicles, as this work is not widely known on the global IV scene. The premise of AUTOPIA is the transfer of autonomous mobile robot control technologies to computer-aided vehicle driving. Two AUTOPIA vans were demonstrated which performed automatic and cooperative driving, including overtaking and automatic gap-keeping. The systems rely strongly on high-precision satellite positioning and inter-vehicle communication. For more information, see: www.iai.csic.es/autopia. Commercial Companies Had Plenty to Show Valeo Under their banner of “Seeing and Being Seen” (see previous IVsource articles), Valeo demonstrated an array of systems in an Audi (one of their key customers). The Valeo representative noted that several of these systems are now in production on various vehicle types:
An accompanying Valeo press release noted that the combination of Lane Departure Warning with their active headlight capability (which they call “Bending Light”) will enable the vehicle to detect oncoming curves and turn the headlights appropriately before steering into the curve is initiated, thereby aligning the headlights with the driver’s typical look direction. Find out more at www.valeo.com. TRW The TRW vehicle shown at the demo is part of the CARSENSE project, funded by the European Union and involving several partners to implement advanced sensor fusion techniques (see previous IVsource articles). The vehicle was equipped with a radar developed by TRW/Thales, video-based lane detection (useful for both lane departure warning and enhancement of Adaptive Cruise Control by detecting the lane in the long-range region and thereby guiding the ACC radar target detection), an IBEO laser scanner, and sensor fusion software techniques developed by TRW. A TRW engineer noted that the laser scanner is most useful for complex urban street scenes and poor weather; in the simple highway scene of the test track, the laser returns were not too useful and the video system did the job. TRW is the supplier of Adaptive Cruise Control to Volkswagen. See www.trw.com for more on these and other systems. Peugeot Peugeot’s main focus is in personal
support within the vehicle, as exemplified by their Auto-PC system which
uses voice commands to control the radio, temperature control, navigation
system, etc. Also shown at the demo
was a rear-seat display for internet access by passengers, and an automatic
Bluetooth cellular telephone hook-up. On
another PSA vehicle a night vision system was shown, providing a small display
at the lower left of the windscreen above the dashboard which showed vivid
images of demo attendees moving around. Company
representatives noted that this capability is not expected to be marketed on
their cars anytime soon, as they sell to a “generalist” market (mid-range
cars), and current costs of night vision are too high for this market. Renault Renault provided demo rides of their
Adaptive Cruise Control system on their high-end Velsatis vehicle, which
is now available on the market. They
say this ACC system is the product of their own internal development.
Additionally, they exhibited an experimental “active gas pedal,”
which provides feedback to the driver when he/she is getting too close to a
vehicle ahead. Both a mild and
strong force are applied for warning and critical situations, respectively.
The warning criteria is based on French law, which requires (perhaps
somewhat unrealistically) that a two second headway must be maintained between
one’s own car and the car ahead. At the demo, Renault was very interested in audience feedback
on the operation of the pedal, and on the degree of force feedback applied.
They noted that it is very challenging to implement and integrate an
actuator in the throttle pedal area for a production system, so they want to
thoroughly assess the usefulness of this function to future customers.
(The only other active throttle pedal known to be on the market is from
BMW, which provides a curve
overspeed warning.) DaimlerChrysler DaimlerChrysler Research has perennially been in the forefront of vehicle research in Europe, and they didn’t disappoint this time. Representing an extensive body of research presented in more depth at the IV2002 conference, the DC gang presented a vision-based lane recognition capable of operating under adverse weather conditions, as well as a new lightening-fast obstacle detection (40-80 msec) relying on machine vision techniques. Dutch High-Tech Includes Advanced Truck Systems AVV Transport Research Center The AVV Transport Research Center at the Dutch Ministry of Transport is breaking new European ground with field operational testing of driver support systems for heavy trucks, as part of their broader program in Advanced Vehicle Guidance R&D. Dutch government activities in this field are now headed by Mirjam Korse, taking the reins from Edwin Bastiaensen, who recently moved on to a new job at ERTICO. The AVV field operational test focuses on Lane Departure Warning Systems (LDWS) as part of their research framework for lateral support systems. Three different truck manufacturers – DAF, DaimlerChrysler, and MAN – are participating in the test with between five and fifteen vehicles. Each brand of truck is equipped with commercially available LDWS systems. The total fleet comprises 30 trucks which will run in revenue service for the next eight months. On some trucks, data loggers will monitor driver usage patterns with the system. Lateral driving support can be quite useful to drivers of large trucks in Europe, which almost fill up the approximately 3.3m (European lane widths (compared to 4m lanes in the US). More information is available at www.rws-avv.nl. The MAN and DaimlerBenz trucks are both equipped with the Iteris AutoVUE system, which is available for purchase on new trucks from these manufacturers. On public roads near the test site, a drive in the MAN vehicle confirmed that the AutoVUE did a good job of tracking the lanes and warning of a departure precisely when the vehicle tires touched the lane markings. Drivers are alerted via a directional acoustic signal. Another ride on a DAF truck showed the performance of the other system involved in the test, the Assistware SafeTRAC LDWS. SafeTRAC performed well on the open road also – the driver was enthusiastic about the system and noted that it performed well even in recent rainy weather. The system can be ordered now from DAF, which is owned by American truck-maker PACCAR, and he noted that the retrofit nature of the SafeTRAC system allows a fleet owner to retrofit an entire fleet once the system has proven its usefulness. This contrasts with the AutoVUE, which is available only on new vehicle purchases. Another difference between the two systems is that AutoVUE operates only above 70 km/hr, whereas the SafeTRAC engages at lower speeds. TNO The Dutch research lab TNO had a strong presence at the Demo with two main displays. First, they are developing an innovative intelligent vehicle simulator called VEHIL that will allow hardware-in-the-loop testing. The VEHIL concept calls for a vehicle under test, equipped with an intelligent vehicle system such as next-generation adaptive cruise control, to operate on a roller bench just as if on the open road. Surrounding the vehicle under test are a variety of other vehicles meant to simulate road traffic. To emulate adjacent traffic, TNO developed a unique high-acceleration, four-wheel-steered mobile robot that can be fitted with a vehicle body to provide both the look and movements of real traffic. Demonstrating unprecedented maneuverability, the VEHIL mobile robot was a real eye-catcher at the show. TNO has also done extensive R&D for the Dutch Ministry of Defense to produce the current version of their RoboJeep research vehicle. Similar to parallel R&D in the US and elsewhere, the RoboJeep can autonomously find its way in unstructured off-road terrain. The vehicle performs autonomous navigation and negotiates obstacles using stereo vision and radar. More on this and other TNO projects at: www.automotive.tno.nl CyberCars Paint a Picture of Future Transportation CyberCars are road vehicles capable of fully automated driving. Current development of CyberCars focus on serving the public transportation sector in urban centers, for low speed transport in areas such as large business complexes and pedestrian malls. The term CyberCars refers to a variety of implementations within a partnership sponsored by the European Commission to perform pilot testing, several of which were shown at Demo2002. For more information, see www.cybercars.org, www.cybermove.org, or previous IVsource articles. Frog Navigation Systems Frog has become well-known in the intelligent vehicles industry as the first to operate a free-ranging CyberCar system in 1997, a rubber-tired people-mover called ParkShuttle which is still operating at the Amsterdam airport. At the Demo, Frog exhibited plans for the second generation ParkShuttle that is being marketed by their new subsidiary 2getthere. See also www.frog.nl. INRIA INRIA has been a pioneer of the automated urban vehicle concept. An INRIA CyberCar, developed with the assistance of Yamaha Europe, used an IBEO laser scanner at the demo to navigate autonomously by detecting reflective poles (spaced 50m apart) placed in the test circuit. On-board vehicle odometry is also used. The highly attractive stylized vehicles are electrically driven and offer the capacity of 2-6 people. Another INRIA-developed CyberCar shown at the demo was the small CyCab, designed to circulate autonomously in city centers, amusement parks, airports, etc. INRIA has spun off a company called RoboSoft to commercialize their CyberCar technologies and systems: see www.robosoft.fr. Serpentine The Serpentine is another CyberCar system which is due for pilot testing in Lausanne, Switzerland. A simple, small-capacity automated electric vehicle, the Serpentine is meant to serve persons walking the quays by the Lake of Geneva. Illustrating the institutional challenges that come with the introduction of vehicle automation technology into public usage, Serpentine SA has been in protracted battles with Swiss government officials to gain certification to begin operations, as the vehicle “falls between the cracks” between cars and trolleybuses, and officials are thus required to enter new territory in defining safety regulations. See www.serpentine.ch for more information. Pointing to the Future Demo2002 has aptly filled the gap between the Japanese Demo 2000 and the frenzy of activity involved in planning for next year. In 2003, the University of Minnesota will sponsor an intelligent vehicles demo in May, in conjunction with the ITS America annual meeting. The following month, the Intelligent Vehicles 2003 conference will be held in Ohio and some IV demos are likely there, as well. Then, in August, Caltrans provides a major demo with their Demo 2003 of automated trucks and buses, which will be held in San Diego on the same highway lanes as the heralded Demo ’97 from years past. [Top] ... on Demo 2002, see www.inria.fr/iv2002 or http://www-rocq.inria.fr/imara/prog-demo.html. [Top]
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Copyright 2002: IVsource.net and Richard Bishop Consulting (RBC). All Rights Reserved. |
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June 2002 |
