ROBOTICS/EMBEDDED SYSTEM

AUTOMATED HIGHWAY SYSTEM

P.E.T. ENGINEERING COLLEGE TIRUCHENDUR ROAD, VALLIOOR-627117 TIRUNELVELI DISTRICT.

PRESENTED BY

H.MOHAMEDZAKIR & K.NADESH

E-MAIL: [email protected]

Abstract
Need is the mother of Invention Highway travel is the lifeblood of modern industrial nations. The larger roads are sorely overburdened: around the major cities, heavy usage slows most peak-hour travel on freeways to less than 60 kilometers per hour. In all excessive traffic causes more than five billion hours delay every year; it wastes countless gallons of fuel and needless multiplies exhaust emissions. The main goal of this project is to make the experience of driving less burdensome and accident less, especially on long trips. This can be achieved by making the highway itself part of the driving experience and integrating roadside technologies that would allow the overburdened highway system to be used more efficiently. The automobiles will have automatic throttle, braking and steering control. Here is a system to host these cars consist of roadside sensors that obtain information about current traffic conditions and rely them to receivers in the automobiles on the road. The automobiles can be grouped together at highway speeds, 65-70 MPH, no more than a few feet apart, which make better use of the available roadways. In this manner, the traffic systems and the automobiles work together to bring passengers safely and quickly to their destinations.

Introduction :

When the internal combustion engine, and the later the automobile, was first introduced to the public, no one could have foreseen the extent to which they would influence daily life. Today, with the information age in full swing, it is still hard to believe the way that computers and other information technology have permeated peoples lives. Now it seems only natural to expect information technologies to enhance the way we view automobiles. People now take for granted automotive systems like emission control and fuel injection. In fact, many people do not realize hoe many systems inside their automobiles are already monitored and controlled by computers. Fuel delivery, ignition, emission, air-conditioning, and automatic transmission systems are examples of the systems used daily by a car that are computer controlled or assisted Now in the information age, people have come to rely on the other driver assistance technologies, such as mobile phones and in-vechicle navigation systems. The goal of these technologies is to make the experience of driving less burdensome, especially on long trip. Even when cars were still young, futurists began thinking about vehicles that could drive themselves, without human help. Perhaps the best known of these conjectures was the General Motors Futurama, the hit of the 1939 New York World's Fair. During the following decades interest in automated vehicles rose and fell several times. Now at the start of the new century, it's worth taking a fresh look at this concept and asking how automation might change transportation and the quality of our lives.

Consider some of the implications of cars that could drive themselves. We might eliminate the more than ninety percent of traffic crashes that are caused by human errors such as misjudgments and inattention, We might reduce antisocial driving behavior such as road rage, rubbernecking delays, and unsafe speeds, thereby significantly reducing the stress of driving. The entire population, including the young, the old, and the infirm, might enjoy a higher level of mobility without requiring advanced driving skills. The luxury of being chauffeured to your destination might be enjoyed by the general populace, not just the wealthiest individuals, so we might all do whatever we like, at work or leisure, while traveling in safety. Fuel consumption and polluting emissions might be reduced by smoothing traffic flow and running vehicles close enough to each other to benefit from aerodynamic drafting. Traffic-management decisions might be based on firm knowledge of vehicle responses to instructions, rather than on guesses about the choices that drivers might make. The capacity of a freeway lane might be doubled or tripled, making it possible to accommodate growing demands for travel without major new construction, or, equivalently, today's level of congestion might be reduced, enabling travelers to save a lot of time. IS IT FEASIBLE? Automating the process of driving is a complex endeavor. Advancements in information technology of the past decade have

contributed greatly, and research specifically devoted to the design of automated highway systems has made many specific contributions. This progress makes it possible for us to formulate operational concepts and prove out the technologies that can implement them. AN AUTOMATED DRIVE : We can now readily visualize your trip on an automated highway system: Imagine leaving work at the end of the day and needing to drive only as far as the nearest on-ramp to the local automated highway. At the on-ramp, you press a button on your dashboard to select the off-ramp closest to your home and then relax as your car's electronic systems, in cooperation with roadside electronics and similar systems on other cars, guide your car smoothly, safely, and effortlessly toward your destination. Enroute you save time by maintaining full speed even at rush-hour traffic volumes. At the end of the off-ramp you resume normal control and drive the remaining distance to your home, better rested and less stressed than if you had driven the entire way. The same capability can also be used over longer distances, e.g. for family vacations that leave everybody, including the "driver," relaxed and well-rested even after a lengthy trip in adverse weather. Although many different technical developments are necessary to turn this image into reality, none requires exotic technologies, and all can be based on systems and components that are already being actively developed in the international motor vehicle industry. These could be viewed as replacements for the diverse functions that drivers perform every day: observing the road, observing the preceding vehicles, steering, accelerating, braking, and deciding when and where to change course.

OBSERVING THE ROAD : Cheap permanent magnets are buried at four-foot intervals along the lane centerline and detected by magnetometers mounted under the vehicle's bumpers. The magnetic-field measurements are decoded to determine the lateral position and height of each bumper at accuracies of less than a centimeter. In addition, the magnets' orientations (either North Pole or South Pole up) represent a binary code (either 0 or 1), and indicate precise milepost locations along the road, as well as road geometry features such as curvature and grade. The software in the vehicle's control computer uses this information to determine the absolute position of the vehicle, as well as to anticipate upcoming changes in the roadway. Other researchers have used computer vision systems to observe the road. These are vulnerable to weather problems and provide less accurate measurements, but they do not require special roadway installations, other than well-maintained lane markings.

Both automated highway lanes and intelligent vehicles will require special sensors, controllers, and communications devices to coordinate traffic flow. OBSERVING PRECEDING VEHICLES : 7The distances and closing rates to preceding vehicles can be measured by millimeter-wave radar or a laser rangefinder. Both

technologies have already been implemented in commercially available adaptive cruise control systems in Japan and Europe. The laser systems are currently less expensive, but the radar systems are more effective at detecting dirty vehicles and operating in adverse weather conditions. As production volumes increase and unit costs decrease, the radars are likely to find increasing favour. STEERING, ACCELERATING AND BRAKING : The equivalents of these driver muscle functions are

electromechanical actuators installed in the automated vehicle. They receive electronic commands from the onboard control computer and then apply the appropriate steering angle, throttle angle, and brake pressure by means of small electric motors. Early versions of these actuators are already being introduced into production vehicles, where they receive their commands directly from the driver's inputs to the steering wheel and pedals. These decisions are being made for reasons largely unrelated to automation. Rather they are associated with reduced energy consumption, simplification of vehicle design, enhanced ease of vehicle assembly, improved ability to adjust performance to match driver preferences, and cost savings compared to traditional direct mechanical control devices. DECIDING WHEN AND WHERE TO CHANGE COURSE : 7Computers in the vehicles and those at the roadside have different functions. Roadside computers are better suited for traffic management, setting the target speed for each segment and lane of roadway, and allocating vehicles to different lanes of a multilane automated facility. The aim is to maintain balanced flow among the lanes and to avoid obstacles or incidents that might block a lane. The vehicle's onboard

computers are better suited to handling decisions about exactly when and where to change lanes to avoid interference with other vehicles. NEW FUNCTIONS : Some additional functions have no direct counterpart in today's driving. Most important, wireless communication technology makes it possible for each automated vehicle's computer to talk continuously to its counterparts in adjoining vehicles. This capability enables vehicles to follow each other with high accuracy and safety, even at very close spacing, and to negotiate cooperative maneuvers such as lane changes to increase system efficiency and safety. Any failure on a vehicle can be instantly known to its neighbors, so that they can respond appropriately to avoid possible collisions. In addition, there should be electronic "check-in" and "check-out" stations at the entry and exit points of the automated lane, somewhat analogous to the toll booths on closed toll roads, where you get a ticket at the entrance and then pay a toll at the exit, based on how far you traveled on the road. At check-in stations, wireless communication between vehicles and roadside would verify that the vehicle is in proper operating condition prior to its entry to the automated lane. Similarly, the check-out system would seek assurance of the driver's readiness to resume control at the exit. The traffic management system for an automated highway would also have broader scope than today's traffic management systems, because it would select an optimal route for every vehicle in the system, continuously balancing travel demand with system capacity, and directing vehicles to follow those routes precisely. Most of these functions have already been implemented and tested in

experimental vehicles. All except for check-in, check-out, and traffic management were implemented in the platoon-scenario demonstration vehicles of Demo '97. A single 166 MHz Pentium computer (obsolete by standards of today's normal desktop PCs) handled all the necessary invehicle computations for vehicle sensing, control, and communications. REMAINING TECHNICAL CHALLENGES : The key technical challenges that remain to be mastered involve software safety, fault detection, and malfunction management. The state of the art of software design is not yet sufficiently advanced to support the development of software that can be guaranteed to perform correctly in safety-critical applications as complex as road-vehicle automation. Excellent performance of automated vehicle control systems (high accuracy with superb ride comfort) has been proven under normal operating conditions, in the absence of failures. Elementary fault detection and malfunction management systems have already been implemented to address the most frequently encountered fault conditions, for use by welltrained test drivers. However, commercially viable implementations will need to address all realistic failure scenarios and provide safe responses even when the driver is a completely untrained member of the general public. Significant efforts are still needed to develop system hardware and software designs that can satisfy these requirements. NONTECHNICAL CHALLENGES : The non technical challenges involve issues of liability, costs, and perceptions. Automated control of vehicles shifts liability for most crashes from the individual driver (and his or her insurance company) to the designer, developer and vendor of the vehicle and roadway control

systems. Provided the system is indeed safer than today's driver-vehiclehighway system, overall liability exposure should be reduced. But its costs will be shifted from automobile insurance premiums to the purchase or lease price of the automated vehicle and toll for use of the automated highway facility. All new technologies tend to be costly when they first become available in small quantities, then their costs decline as production volumes increase and the technologies mature. We should expect vehicle automation technologies to follow the same pattern. They may initially be economically viable only for heavy vehicles (transit buses, commercial trucks) and high-end passenger cars. However, it should not take long for the costs to become affordable to a wide range of vehicle owners and operators, especially with many of the enabling technologies already being commercialized for volume production today. The largest impediment to introduction of electronic chauffeuring may turn out to be the general perception that it's more difficult and expensive to implement than it really is. If political and industrial decision makers perceive automated driving to be too futuristic, they will not pay it the attention it deserves and will not invest their resources toward accelerating its deployment. The perception could thus become a selffulfilling prophecy. It is important to recognize that automated vehicles are already carrying millions of passengers every day. Most major airports have automated people movers that transfer passengers among terminal buildings. Urban transit lines in Paris, London, Vancouver, Lyon, and Lillie, among others, are operating with completely automated, driverless

vehicles; some have been doing so for more than a decade. Modern commercial aircraft operate on autopilot for much of the time, and they also land under automatic control at suitably equipped airports on a regular basis. Given all of this experience in implementing safety-critical automated transportation systems, it is not such a large leap to develop road vehicles that can operate under automatic control on their own segregated and protected lanes. That should be a realistic goal for the next decade. The transportation system will thus gain substantial benefits from the revolution in information technology. HARDWARE PLATFORM FOR WORKING MODEL: GENERAL BLOCK DIAGRAM
R

A in e C D d e t e c Lt oC r

P o r t

P o r t

A D C

O b s t a c le d e t e c t o r

P
D C m o

M
P o r t

t o r D i r e c t i o

8 0 5 2
n

P o r t

E n a b le L R

e i g

f t h t

t e e r i n s e r v o

Pg

INFRARED PROXIMITY DETECTOR: The IR Proximity detector uses same technology found in a TV remote control device. The detector sends out modulated infra-red light, and looks for reflected light coming back. When enough light is received back to trigger the detector circuit, the circuit produces a high on the output line. Light in the form of a continuous string of bursts of modulated square waves. Bursts alternate between left and right LEDs. A

microprocessor generates the bursts, and correlates the receiver output to burst. The IRPD we have used makes use of a Panasonic PNA4602M IR sensor coupled with two IR LEDs to detect obstacles. The Panasonic module contains integrated amplifiers, filters, and a limiter. The detector responds to a modulated carrier to help eliminate background noise associated with sunlight and certain lighting fixtures. The LEDs are modulated by an adjustable free running oscillator. The sensitivity of the sensor is controlled by altering the drive current to LEDs. The microcontroller alternatively enables the LEDs and checks for a reflection. A provided from the host microcontroller, one for enabling the left IR LED, the second for enabling the right IR LED. A third analog output from the IRPD kit is connected to an analog-to-digital converter. LINE DETECTOR: The line detector is an infrared reflective sensor that can be attached to the front of the car to follow a white line on a black background, or vice versa. There are three reflective sensors, which are made from one piece of infrared LED and photo detector that are directed at the surface below the vehicle. Each of the sensors looks reflected IR light. When one of the sensors is positioned over dark or black surface its output is low. When it is moved to light or white surface its output will be high. The microcontroller these signals and moves the robot according to the diagram below. The line detector works effectively when thickness ranged between to .the track can be white tape on a black background or black tape on a white background. The sensors can be at a maximum height of .5 inches above the ground.

The three IR-Detector pairs are depicted on the right of the circuit diagram. The base of each of the transistors is passed through an inverter. The lines from the inverter are passed to microcontroller and to the LEDs indicating the position of the line detector on the road. As the emitted light from the IR LED is reflected from the road back to the transistor the current starts flowing through the emitter making the base low. Te base is connected to the inverter which causes the line to go at its output. Since the output lines are also connected to the LEDs, the corresponding LED glows when the particular output line is high. STEERING SERVO : A servo comprises of control, a set of gears, a potentiometer and a motor. The potentiometer is connected to the motor via gear set .a control signal gives the motor a position to rotate to and the motor starts to turn. The potentiometer rotates with motor and as it does so its resistance changes. The control circuit monitors its resistance, as soon as its reaches its appropriate values the motor stop and the servo is in correct position. A servo is a classic example of a closed loop feedback system. The potentiometer is coupled to the output gear. Its resistance is proportional to the position of the servos output shaft(0 to 180 degrees) CONCLUSION: National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration is an ongoing research on collision avoidance and driver/vehicle interfaces. AHS was a strong public/private partnership with the goal to build a prototype system. There are many things that can be done in the vehicle, but if we do some of them on the roadway it will be more efficient and possibly

cheaper. Preliminary estimates show that rear-end, lane-change, and roadway-departure crash-avoidance systems have the potential to reduce motor-vehicle crashes by one-sixth or about 1.2 million crashes a year. Such systems may take the form of warning drivers, recommending control actions, and introducing temporary or partial automated control in hazardous situations. AHS described in this paper is functional, there is much room for improvement. More research is needed to determine if any dependencies exist that influence velocity of the vehicle maintaining proper following distance while following a path. Assuming such system is ever perfected, one would imagine it would tend to render the great tradition of the free-ranging car into something approaching mass-transit. After all, when your individual car becomes part of a massive circulatory system, with destination pre-selected and all spontaneity removed, that makes your travel any different than trip? Only that you choose the starting time personally.