Cooperative automated driving is a promising development in reducing energy consumption and emissions, increasing road safety, and improving traffic flow. The Grand Cooperative Driving Challenge (GCDC) 2016 was an implementation oriented project with the aim to accelerate research and development in the field. This paper describes the development of the two vehicle systems with which KTH participated in GCDC 2016. It presents a reference system architecture for collaborative automated driving as well as its instantiation on two conceptually different vehicles: a Scania truck and the research concept vehicle, built at KTH. We describe the common system architecture, as well as the implementation of a selection of shared and individual system functionalities, such as V2X communication, localization, state estimation, and longitudinal and lateral control. We also present a novel approach to trajectory tracking control for a four-wheel steering vehicle using model predictive control and a novel method for achieving fair data age distribution in vehicular communications.

In this paper, a lateral controller is proposed for an over-Actuated vehicle. The controller is formulated as a linear time-varying model predictive controller. The aim of the controller is to track a desired path smoothly, by making use of the vehicle crabbing capability (sideways movement) and minimizing the magnitude of curvature used. To do this, not only the error to the path is minimized, but also the error to the desired orientation and the control signals requests. The controller uses an extended kinematic model that takes into consideration the vehicle crabbing capability and is able to track not only kinematically feasible paths, but also plan and track over non-feasible discontinuous paths. Ackermann steering geometry is used to transform the control requests, curvature, and crabbing angle, to wheel angles. Finally, the controller performance is evaluated first by simulation and, after, by means of experimental tests on an over-Actuated autonomous research vehicle.

This paper presents a novel path planning algorithm for on-road autonomous driving. The algorithm targets long and wide vehicles, in which the overhangs (i.e., the vehicle chassis extending beyond the front and rear wheelbase) can endanger other vehicles, pedestrians, or even the vehicle itself. The vehicle motion is described in a road-aligned coordinate frame. A novel method for computing the vehicle limits is proposed guaranteeing feasibility of the planned path when converted back into the original coordinate frame. The algorithm is posed as a convex optimization that takes into account the exact dimensions of the vehicle and the road, while minimizing the amount of overhang outside of the drivable surface. The results of the proposed algorithm are compared in a simulation of a real road scenario against a centerline tracking scheme. The results show a significant decrease on the amount of overhang area outside of the drivable surface, leading to an increased safety in driving maneuvers. The real-time applicability of the method is shown, by using it in a recedinghorizon framework.

Reducing the fuel consumption is a major issue in the vehicle industry. In this paper, it is done by formulatinga driving mission of a heavy-duty truck as an optimal control problem and solving it using dynamic programming.The vehicle model includes an engine and a gearbox with parameters based on measurements in test cells. The dynamic programming algorithm is solved by considering four specifictypes of transitions: transitions between the same gear, coastingin neutral gear, coasting with a gear engaged with no fuel injection and transitions involving gear changes. Simulations are performed on a driving cycle commonly used for testing distribution type of driving. In order to make sure that the truck does not deviate too much from a normal way of driving, restrictions on maximum and minimum allowed velocities are imposed based on statistics from real traffic data. The simulations show that 12.7% fuel can be saved without increasing the trip time by allowing the truck to engage neutral gear and make small deviations from the reference trajectory.

In this paper, we present an algorithm for lateral control of a vehicle – a smooth and accurate model predictive controller. The fundamental difference compared to a standard MPC is that the driving smoothness is directly addressed in the cost function. The controller objective is based on the minimization of the first- and second-order spatial derivatives of the curvature. By doing so, jerky commands to the steering wheel, which could lead to permanent damage on the steering components and vehicle structure, are avoided. A good path tracking accuracy is ensured by adding constraints to avoid deviations from the reference path. Finally, the controller is experimentally tested and evaluated on a Scania construction truck. The evaluation is performed at Scania’s facilities near So ̈derta ̈lje, Sweden via two different paths: a precision track that resembles a mining scenario and a high-speed test track that resembles a highway situation. Even using a linearized kinematic vehicle to predict the vehicle motion, the performance of the proposed controller is encouraging, since the deviation from the path never exceeds 30 cm. It clearly outperforms an industrial pure-pursuit controller in terms of path accuracy and a standard MPC in terms of driving smoothness. 

This paper presents stability conditions when designing a linear time-varying model predictive controller for lateral control of an autonomous vehicle. Stability is proved via Lyapunov techniques by adding a terminal state constraint and a terminal cost. We detail how to compute the terminal state and the terminal cost for the linear time-varying case, and interpret the obtained results in the light of an autonomous driving application. To determine the stability conditions, the concept of multi-model description is used, where the linear time-varying model is separated into a finite number of time- invariant models that depend on a single parameter. The terminal set is the maximum positive invariant set of the multi- model description and the terminal cost is the result of a min-max optimization that determines the worst time-invariant model if used as a prediction model. In fact, in the autonomous driving case, we show that the min-max approach is a convex optimization problem. The stability conditions are computed offline, maintain the convexity of the optimization, and do not affect the execution time of the controller. In simulation, we demonstrate the stabilizing effectiveness of the proposed conditions through an illustrative example of path following with a heavy-duty vehicle. 

This paper presents a spatial-based trajectory planning method for automated vehicles under actuator, obstacle avoidance, and vehicle dimension constraints. Starting from a nonlinear kinematic bicycle model, vehicle dynamics are transformed to a road-aligned coordinate frame with path along the road centerline replacing time as the dependent variable. Space-varying vehicle dimension constraints are linearized around a reference path to pose convex optimization problems. Such constraints do not require to inflate obstacles by safety-margins and therefore maximize performance in very constrained environments. A sequential linear programming (SLP) algorithm is motivated. A linear program (LP) is solved at each SLP-iteration. The relation between LP formulation and maximum admissible traveling speeds within vehicle tire friction limits is discussed. The proposed method is evaluated in a roomy and in a tight maneuvering driving scenario, whereby a comparison to a semi-analytical clothoid-based path planner is given. Effectiveness is demonstrated particularly for very constrained environments, requiring to account for constraints and planning over the entire obstacle constellation space.

Freight transportation is of outmost importance in our society and is continuously increasing. At the same time, transporting goods on roads accounts for about 26% of the total energy consumption and 18% of all greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union. Despite the influence the transportation system has on our energy consumption and the environment, road transportation is mainly done by individual long-haulage trucks with no real-time coordination or global optimization. In this paper, we review how modern information and communication technology supports a cyber-physical transportation system architecture with an integrated logistic system coordinating fleets of trucks traveling together in vehicle platoons. From the reduced air drag, platooning trucks traveling close together can save about 10% of their fuel consumption. Utilizing road grade information and vehicle-to-vehicle communication, a safe and fuel-optimized cooperative look-ahead control strategy is implemented on top of the existing cruise controller. By optimizing the interaction between vehicles and platoons of vehicles, it is shown that significant improvements can be achieved. An integrated transport planning and vehicle routing in the fleet management system allows both small and large fleet owners to benefit from the collaboration. A realistic case study with 200 heavy-duty vehicles performing transportation tasks in Sweden is described. Simulations show overall fuel savings at more than 5% thanks to coordinated platoon planning. It is also illustrated how well the proposed cooperative look-ahead controller for heavy-duty vehicle platoons manages to optimize the velocity profiles of the vehicles over a hilly segment of the considered road network.

In this paper, we propose a controller for smooth autonomous path following. The controller is formulated as an economic model predictive controller. The economic cost introduced in the objective function leads to a smooth driving, since we minimize the first and second derivatives of the curvature function (i.e., we encourage linear curvature profiles). Since the curvature in clothoids varies linearly with the path arc-length, we use the smoothness and comfort characteristics of clothoid-driving to obtain a compact and intuitive controller formulation. We enforce convergence of the controller to the reference path with soft constraints that avoid deviations from the reference path. Finally, we present real life experiments where the controller is deployed on a Scania construction truck that show that the proposed controller outperforms a pure-pursuit controller. Moreover, we detail how the few tuning parameters can affect the obtained solution in practice.

Truck platooning is a means to significantly reduce the fuel consumption for the follower vehicle as the air drag is reduced when the inter-vehicle gap between the trucks is reduced. As each truck is assigned with different start and end locations, platoons will be frequently formed and split, while driving to their respective destinations. Additionally, the trucks are not the only ones driving on the road as there are other road users, which may influence how well a platoon can be formed. In this paper, an experimental study is conducted to investigate how traffic may affect a merging maneuver of two trucks trying to form a platoon on a public highway during rush hours. We obtained traffic data from Stockholm's motorway control system to determine the traffic condition for each testrun. Furthermore, we tried different truck speeds to study if it had any impacts on merge delay. Even in light traffic condition, a platoon merge could be delayed with over 10 % compared to the ideal case with the absence of traffic. This is partially caused by persistent drivers in which we encountered them in a fourth of the runs.