scholarly journals On infusing reachability-based safety assurance within planning frameworks for human–robot vehicle interactions

2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (10-11) ◽  
pp. 1326-1345 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Leung ◽  
Edward Schmerling ◽  
Mengxuan Zhang ◽  
Mo Chen ◽  
John Talbot ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Autonomous Vehicle ◽  
Autonomous Driving ◽  
The Other ◽  
Proactive Behavior ◽  
The Road ◽  
Planning Algorithm ◽  
Intent Prediction ◽  
On The Road ◽  
Free Interaction

Action anticipation, intent prediction, and proactive behavior are all desirable characteristics for autonomous driving policies in interactive scenarios. Paramount, however, is ensuring safety on the road: a key challenge in doing so is accounting for uncertainty in human driver actions without unduly impacting planner performance. This article introduces a minimally interventional safety controller operating within an autonomous vehicle control stack with the role of ensuring collision-free interaction with an externally controlled (e.g., human-driven) counterpart while respecting static obstacles such as a road boundary wall. We leverage reachability analysis to construct a real-time (100 Hz) controller that serves the dual role of (i) tracking an input trajectory from a higher-level planning algorithm using model predictive control, and (ii) assuring safety by maintaining the availability of a collision-free escape maneuver as a persistent constraint regardless of whatever future actions the other car takes. A full-scale steer-by-wire platform is used to conduct traffic-weaving experiments wherein two cars, initially side-by-side, must swap lanes in a limited amount of time and distance, emulating cars merging onto/off of a highway. We demonstrate that, with our control stack, the autonomous vehicle is able to avoid collision even when the other car defies the planner’s expectations and takes dangerous actions, either carelessly or with the intent to collide, and otherwise deviates minimally from the planned trajectory to the extent required to maintain safety.

scholarly journals Distraction Potential of Vehicle-Based On-Road Projection

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (24) ◽  
pp. 12030
Author(s):  
Tobias Glück ◽  
Tobias Biermann ◽  
Alexander Wolf ◽  
Sören Budig ◽  
Arved Ziebehl ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Tracking System ◽  
Autonomous Driving ◽  
The Other ◽  
Blind Study ◽  
Critical Threshold ◽  
Driver Assistance ◽  
The Road ◽  
Road Users ◽  
On The Road

With regard to autonomous driving, on-road projections cannot only be used for communication with the driver but also with other road users. Our study aims to investigate the distraction potential for other road users when on-road projections (e.g., for driver assistance) are used to communicate with the driver of the projecting vehicle. We perform this investigation in a blind study with 38 test persons who are overtaken six times on a constant motorway section by the projection vehicle. The distraction potential is examined with an eye-tracking system, which detects the direction of the subjects’ gaze. In addition, the subjects’ physiological perception of the headlight projection is recorded with a questionnaire afterward. Several test subjects looked at the projection for less than one second, which is well below the critical threshold for the distraction of 1.6 s. In the interviews, on the other hand, only one of the 38 test persons stated that a projection on the road was recognized. For the examined scenario, it is therefore deduced that on-road projections with the selected symbol shape and brightness do not lead to critical distraction.

scholarly journals Autonomous Drifting Using Reinforcement Learning

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
László Orgován ◽  
Tamás Bécsi ◽  
Szilárd Aradi
Keyword(s):  
Reinforcement Learning ◽  
Autonomous Vehicles ◽  
Learning Algorithm ◽  
Autonomous Vehicle ◽  
Autonomous Driving ◽  
The Road ◽  
Model Free ◽  
On The Road ◽  
Self Driving Cars ◽  
Planning Problems

Autonomous vehicles or self-driving cars are prevalent nowadays, many vehicle manufacturers, and other tech companies are trying to develop autonomous vehicles. One major goal of the self-driving algorithms is to perform manoeuvres safely, even when some anomaly arises. To solve these kinds of complex issues, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning methods are used. One of these motion planning problems is when the tires lose their grip on the road, an autonomous vehicle should handle this situation. Thus the paper provides an Autonomous Drifting algorithm using Reinforcement Learning. The algorithm is based on a model-free learning algorithm, Twin Delayed Deep Deterministic Policy Gradients (TD3). The model is trained on six different tracks in a simulator, which is developed specifically for autonomous driving systems; namely CARLA.

scholarly journals In Cars (Are We Really Safest of All?): Interior Sensing and Emotional Opacity

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew McStay ◽  
Lachlan Urquhart
Keyword(s):  
Autonomous Driving ◽  
Monitoring Systems ◽  
Affective States ◽  
The Road ◽  
Social Trends ◽  
Driver Monitoring ◽  
European Regulations ◽  
On The Road ◽  
Vision Zero

This paper considers car driver monitoring systems that measure bodies to infer and react to emotions and other affective states. Situated within social trends in personalisation and automation, developers of driver monitoring systems promise increased safety on the road and comfort for cabin occupants. The impetus is threefold, namely: (1) European road safety policy seeks to vastly reduce road deaths using computational surveillance; (2) interest in the role of safety solutions based on in-cabin sensing of emotion and affective states of drivers and passengers; and 3) autonomous driving trends changing the nature of interactions between vehicle and driver. These systems are of special interest because they are backed by policy and standards initiatives, not least the European Union’s Vision Zero policy that seeks to reduce road death to zero, and industry-oriented safety programmes like the New Car Assessment Programme (NCAP). Informed by 13 expert interviews with interviewees working in and around in-cabin sensing developments, this paper identifies and explores features of emergent in-cabin profiling through emotional AI and biometric measures. It then carries ambivalent insights found into analysis of applicable European regulations, also finding a deep ambivalence in the politics of Emotional AI for interior sensing of cabins and occupants.

scholarly journals Object Detection, Distributed Cloud Computing and Parallelization Techniques for Autonomous Driving Systems

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edgar Cortés Gallardo Medina ◽  
Victor Miguel Velazquez Espitia ◽  
Daniela Chípuli Silva ◽  
Sebastián Fernández Ruiz de las Cuevas ◽  
Marco Palacios Hirata ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Path Planning ◽  
Object Detection ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
Autonomous Vehicle ◽  
Autonomous Driving ◽  
The Road ◽  
Vehicle System ◽  
End To End ◽  
On The Road ◽  
Distributed Cloud

Autonomous driving systems are increasingly becoming a necessary trend towards building smart cities of the future. Numerous proposals have been presented in recent years to tackle particular aspects of the working pipeline towards creating a functional end-to-end system, such as object detection, tracking, path planning, sentiment or intent detection. Nevertheless, few efforts have been made to systematically compile all of these systems into a single proposal that effectively considers the real challenges these systems will have on the road, such as real-time computation, hardware capabilities, etc. This paper has reviewed various techniques towards proposing our own end-to-end autonomous vehicle system, considering the latest state on the art on computer vision, DSs, path planning, and parallelization.

The Role of Crushes on the Road to Autonomy

2009 ◽  
Vol 43 (9) ◽  
pp. 18-19
Author(s):  
MICHAEL S. JELLINEK
Keyword(s):  
The Road ◽  
On The Road

CREATING WALKING LED TRANSIT STATIONS FOR WOMEN IN MALAYSIA

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 99
Author(s):  
Yong Adilah Shamsul Harumain ◽  
Nur Farhana Azmi ◽  
Suhaini Yusoff
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Public Transportation ◽  
Carbon Emission ◽  
The Other ◽  
Walking Distance ◽  
The Road ◽  
On The Road ◽  
Female User

Transit stations are generally well known as nodes of spaces where percentage of people walking are relatively high. The issue is do more planning is actually given to create walkability. Creating walking led transit stations involves planning of walking distance, providing facilities like pathways, toilets, seating and lighting. On the other hand, creating walking led transit station for women uncover a new epitome. Walking becomes one of the most important forms of mobility for women in developing countries nowadays. Encouraging women to use public transportation is not just about another effort to promote the use of public transportation but also another great endeavour to reduce numbers of traffic on the road. This also means, creating an effort to control accidents rate, reducing carbon emission, improving health and eventually, developing the quality of life. Hence, in this paper, we sought first to find out the factors that motivate women to walk at transit stations in Malaysia. A questionnaire survey with 562 female user of Light Railway Transit (LRT) was conducted at LRT stations along Kelana Jaya Line. Both built and non-built environment characteristics, particularly distance, safety and facilities were found as factors that are consistently associated with women walkability. With these findings, the paper highlights the criteria  which are needed to create and make betterment of transit stations not just for women but also for walkability in general.

The Role of Geo-location Technologies

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Jerker B. Svantesson
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Law Reform ◽  
Private International Law ◽  
Current Effect ◽  
Public International Law ◽  
The Road ◽  
On The Road

This chapter explores the role geo-location technologies may play on the road towards achieving jurisdictional interoperability. The relevant technologies involved are introduced briefly, their accuracy examined, and an overview is provided of their use, including the increasingly common use of so-called geo-blocking. Attention is then given to perceived and real concerns stemming from the use of geo-location technologies and how these technologies impact international law, territoriality, and sovereignty, as well as to the role these technologies may play in law reform. The point is made that the current ‘effect-focused’ rules in both private international law and public international law (as those disciplines are traditionally defined), are likely to continue to work as an incentive for the use of geo-location technologies.

scholarly journals Politics, industry, and tourism: The conceptual construction of the blue highway

2020 ◽  
pp. 002252662097950
Author(s):  
Fredrik Bertilsson
Keyword(s):  
Road Network ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Community Building ◽  
Atlantic Coast ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
The Road ◽  
Conceptual Construction ◽  
On The Road ◽  
Post War

This article contributes to the research on the expansion of the Swedish post-war road network by illuminating the role of tourism in addition to political and industrial agendas. Specifically, it examines the “conceptual construction” of the Blue Highway, which currently stretches from the Atlantic Coast of Norway, traverses through Sweden and Finland, and enters into Russia. The focus is on Swedish governmental reports and national press between the 1950s and the 1970s. The article identifies three overlapping meanings attached to the Blue Highway: a political agenda of improving the relationships between the Nordic countries, industrial interests, and tourism. Political ambitions of Nordic community building were clearly pronounced at the onset of the project. Industrial actors depended on the road for the building of power plants and dams. The road became gradually more connected with the view of tourism as the motor of regional development.

scholarly journals Relationship between Cycling Infrastructure and Transportation Cycling in a Small Urban Area

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-112
Author(s):  
Richard Larouche ◽  
Nimesh Patel ◽  
Jennifer L. Copeland
Keyword(s):  
Generalized Linear Models ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Linear Models ◽  
The Other ◽  
Small City ◽  
The Road ◽  
The Past ◽  
Low Prevalence ◽  
The Relationship

The role of infrastructure in encouraging transportation cycling in smaller cities with a low prevalence of cycling remains unclear. To investigate the relationship between the presence of infrastructure and transportation cycling in a small city (Lethbridge, AB, Canada), we interviewed 246 adults along a recently-constructed bicycle boulevard and two comparison streets with no recent changes in cycling infrastructure. One comparison street had a separate multi-use path and the other had no cycling infrastructure. Questions addressed time spent cycling in the past week and 2 years prior and potential socio-demographic and psychosocial correlates of cycling, including safety concerns. Finally, we asked participants what could be done to make cycling safer and more attractive. We examined predictors of cycling using gender-stratified generalized linear models. Women interviewed along the street with a separate path reported cycling more than women on the other streets. A more favorable attitude towards cycling and greater habit strength were associated with more cycling in both men and women. Qualitative data revealed generally positive views about the bicycle boulevard, a need for education about sharing the road and for better cycling infrastructure in general. Our results suggest that, even in smaller cities, cycling infrastructure may encourage cycling, especially among women.

scholarly journals Checklist of lizards of the Juruti, state of Pará, Brazil

Check List ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Lúcia Costa Prudente ◽  
Fernanda Magalhães ◽  
Alessandro Menks ◽  
João Fabrício De Melo Sarmento
Keyword(s):  
Sampling Methods ◽  
Abundant Species ◽  
The Other ◽  
Sampling Effort ◽  
Pitfall Traps ◽  
Lizard Species ◽  
Species List ◽  
The Road ◽  
On The Road

We present the first lizard species list for the municipality of Juruti, state of Pará, Brazil. The list was drawn up as a result of data obtained from specimens deposited in the Herpetological Collection of the Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi and from inventories conducted in 2008-2011. Sampling methods included pitfall traps with drift fences and time constrained searches. We considered the data collected by other researchers, incidental encounters and records of dead individuals on the road. We recorded 33 species, 26 genera and ten families. Norops tandai was the most abundant species. Compared with the other regions of Amazonia, the region of Juruti presented a large number of lizards. However, further studies with an increase in the sampling effort, could prove this area to be richer in lizards than that observed so far.

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