We have a full-sized drive by ethernet vehicle in our lab. This vehicle provides us with a research testbed, to investigate
- simulation models for complex systems
- reconfigurable system identification
- multi-modal simulators at different vehicle speeds
- software modeling techniques
- system modeling and integration
- metamodeling approaches to system composition
- cyber-physical problems in automotive software
Actuation details
Our vehicle was actuated by TORC Technologies, and is controllable by sending JAUS messages over ethernet. From the TorcTech website:
TORC’s ByWire XGV™ is a JAUS interoperable, drive-by-wire controlled ground vehicle platform which utilizes the Ford Escape Hybrid as the base vehicle. The XGV comes with built-in safety components and an optional onboard power management system.
We use this vehicle platform in order to work on advanced computation, control, sensing, and communication issues that autonomous vehicles must solve in order to be more widespread in societal applications.
Available control inputs and state data
The following control inputs are available:
- Open Loop
- Throttle
- Steering
- Brake
- Shifter
- Closed Loop
- Speed
- Acceleration
- Curvature
- Rate of Curvature Change
- Devices
- Vehicle start/disable
- Horn
- Lights/signals (Low/High beam, fog, left/right turn, parking, hazards)
The following state feedback data are available
- Vehicle speed
- Individual wheel speeds
- Steering angle
- Throttle (%)
- Brake (%)
- Shifter position
- "Ready to drive"
- Lights/signals status
- Door status
- Errors
System Integration
Actuation Integration Diagram (from www.torctech.com)
As shown in the figure to the right, the drive-by-wire features of our vehicle depend on the tight integration of the actuated platform. The vehicle system provides clean DC power to our 3rd party computers, and a network interface to the drive-by-wire system. We can send commands to the drive technology, and receive state data from the vehicle.
Related publications
If you are interested in this research as a potential student, please write your candidate paper on one of the below papers in addition to the journal articles required.
- Andreas Schuster and Jonathan Sprinkle. "Synthesizing Executable Simulations from Structural Models of Component-Based Systems." Electronic Communications of the European Association of Software Science and Technology (EASST), 21:10 pages, 2009.
(Cite)
- Jonathan Sprinkle, J. Mikael Eklund, Humberto Gonzalez, Esten Ingar Grøtli, Ben Upcroft, Alex Makarenko, Will Uther, Michael Moser, Robert Fitch, Hugh Durrant-Whyte and S. Shankar Sastry. "Model-based design: a report from the trenches of the DARPA Urban Challenge." Software and Systems Modeling, 8(4):551-566, 2009. (Cite)
- Humberto Gonzalez, Esten I. Grøtli, Todd R. Templeton, Jan O. Biermeyer, Jonathan Sprinkle and S. Shankar Sastry. "Transitioning Control and Sensing Technologies from Fully-autonomous Driving to Driver Assistance Systems." In AAET: Automation, Assistance, and Embedded Systems for Transportation., . Technical University, Braunschweig, February 13--14, 2008. (Cite)