Along with intersections and roundabouts, all sorts of traffic situations on urban thoroughfares present major challenges for automated driving – ones that need to be mastered. One example is dynamic bottlenecks, which result from situations such as double-parked vehicles, or bus stops. The development of a safe and reliable system for vehicle guidance on urban streets needs to factor in the topographic and structural constraints, as well as any appearing dynamic traffic object.
SP 6Automated driving on urban streets
Mastering obstacles
Subproject 6 addresses automated vehicle guidance between junctions in the city and, in particular, mastering traffic disturbances of the type that can, for example, be encountered when passing bottlenecks. In doing so, it is imperative that the environment is sensed and interpreted correctly. This concerns both stationary infrastructure installations and dynamic and changing environmental circumstances. Including aspects specific to public transport in this subproject will result in bottleneck situations that impact the way both buses and passenger cars are guided. One scenario in the context of bus stops is, for example, the way a bus approaches a stop in an urban environment.
Implementation of driving strategies
The development and implementation of driving strategies that are based on a system of environmental sensing are components of the work being pursued in this subproject. Key elements of this work are the static environmental model based on HD maps, the localisation of the vehicle with the aid of urban landmarks, and sensor-based environment detection. Specific challenges in the urban environment are presented by the analysis of the prevailing situation and the specific reaction that is appropriate to the selected scenarios.
Route planning
Innovative concepts for route planning in an urban context represent additional focal points of the research. New methods for implementing a driving strategy that caters to traffic and users are being developed for selected scenarios, with the aid of suitable simulation methods. The functional characteristics developed will be trialled and evaluated with the aid of demonstrators in real traffic. Along with passenger vehicles, the prototypes that will be implemented also encompass a bus with an automated driving function to represent typical use scenarios encountered within the context of public transport.
Along with the increase in safety, this also aims to outline how automated systems help the driver to master demanding thoroughfares in urban traffic and to examine how the responsibility for driving is surrendered to the driver in situations which make this necessary. The evaluations are made on the basis of the criteria developed. In order to be able to evaluate the functionality, test methods are being developed that, on the one hand, allow the quality of the function to be tested and, on the other hand, determine whether the system requirements are being satisfied. The test methods encompass tests that are simulations,
and ones conducted on testing grounds and on public roads in the city. A particular focus is being directed on scenario-based testing. The insights this delivers will be channelled back into the development of the functions, allowing them to be optimised until an adequate quality has been attained and the system requirements that were defined have been satisfied.
SP 1
Sensing the environment and situational understanding
SP 2
Digital map and localisation
SP 3
Concepts and pilot applications
SP 4
Human-vehicle-interaction
SP 5
Automated driving through urban junctions
SP 6
Automated driving on urban streets
SP 7
Interaction with vulnerable road users