In the networking and autonomy sub-project of the dtec.bw MORE project, autonomous vehicles for material and passenger transportation are being developed, among other things. Our task is to develop the near-field monitoring system NeFiMMORE (Near Field Monitoring for MORE), which intervenes if the main system has not recognized a dangerous situation. The NeFiMMORE system works completely independently of the main system with its own sensors.
If the main system fails, the monitoring task can still be performed. The aim of the development is not only the monitoring task, but at the same time the system should also be very energy-efficient and can be integrated directly into the lidar sensors if necessary. The first vehicle to be built will be the Streetscooter for transporting materials.
The fully autonomous vehicle is controlled via a high-level system. The majority of the sensors required for this are mounted on the roof. This means that the close range around the vehicle cannot be detected by these sensors. Figure 1 illustrates this problem.The final system monitors the entire area around the vehicle. For this purpose, one sensor is installed at the front and two at the rear. The rear sensors are mainly used when the vehicle is moving in traffic-calmed zones, e.g. the canteen.
The area to be monitored is referred to as the “keep-out area”. NeFiMMore works independently of the high-level system so that it can make its own decisions. It accesses the raw data from the sensors directly. The decision is based on the planned route.
Participants:
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ferdinand Englberger
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Vladislav Nenchev
M.Sc. Junnan Pan
Dipl.-Ing. Prodromos Sotiriadis