The rapid pace of the development of the transport and vehicle industry in combination with megatrends such as digitalization, automation, and electrification can have huge effects on how transport planning and the society evolves. In order to meet goals such as increased traffic safety,improved environment, and reduced congestions a lot needs to be done. Two tools expected to be of significance when creating a more transport efficient society are automation and digitalization, whereby self-driving vehicles (SDVs) is an important area. The race towards fully autonomous vehicles is ongoing and scholars argue that the implementation of SDVs can be faster within freight transportation than passenger transportation. Higher costsavings, as well as decreasing availability on the labor market, are two arguments for why freighttransportation can be autonomous faster. Depending on how ambitious or slow the policy and planning are as well as the development of shared solutions, different future scenarios, as well as penetration rates of SDVs, can come through. One certain trend argued to continue to grow as well as having an impact on the development of SDVs is the rapid growth of e-commerce. This study addresses the uncertainty concerning SDVs from a transport administrator’s perspective by identifying important factors for Trafikverket regarding the implementation of SDVs within freight transportation. Four already developed future plausible scenarios for the year 2030 lay the ground for this study and a case study concerning the supply chain of e-commerce in Sweden is used to delimitate the study. Interviews with distributors were held to conduct the case and two workshops with experts within the transport sector, academia, and authorities, as well as a meeting with a reference group with representatives from Trafikverket were held to collect data. In the workshops, the experts identified trends and system impacts within the four future scenarios. A key insight gained in this study is that SDVs is an area with a lot of insecurity and thus, it needs to be investigated further. One solution to study the subject further is to implement restricted lanes for SDVs to test the technique properly. The results of this study clearly show that even though SDVs is a topical issue, it should not be studied as a solitary subject but rather in a larger context together with other significant factors. Nighttime transports and deliveries, platooning, and electricroads and electric vehicles are three factors that are likely to be implemented very soon and should, therefore, be studied together with SDVs. Moreover, the result from the workshops implies that there will be an increased number of vehicles as well as vehicle kilometers within the distribution of e-commerce packages in the future. In addition, the experts expect SDVs to be present in the year 2030, but the number of SDVs depend on multiple factors.

The conversion towards a more automated transport system causes new challenges for information sharing, responsibilities and infrastructure requirements. This study examines autonomous vehicles’ need of reliable information and infrastructure, and how it affects the future road transport system, with focus on road signs. The purpose of the study is to investigate how cooperation among different actors can meet the vehicles’ need of information, with the assumption of mixed traffic including vehicles of different automation levels. Interviews were conducted with representatives from the automotive industry, the transport administration, the transport agency and a transport research lab. The results indicate great complexity and diversity among the actors perspectives upon how the automated transport system will be designed in the future. It is clear that autonomous driving will be limited to geofenced areas and restricted under special conditions, at least in the near future. Redundant and secure information obtained e.g. from digital maps, cloud services and vehicle sensors will be important for the future automated vehicle to make accurate strategic-, tactical- and operational decisions. Further, it is important that actors collaborate and share this information with each other.

Traditionella fordonstillverkare är inte längre ensamma aktörer på fordonsmarknaden – utan stora IT-företag som Apple och Alphabet har ökat sina forskningsanslag och arbetar på kommersialiserad självkörningsteknologi. Fler inblandade IT-aktörer och en ökad mängd IT i fordonen gör att vi bedömer att autonoma fordon kan betraktas som IT-produkter, vilket vi ser kan medföra olika risker och utmaningar.   Autonoma fordons testverksamhet pågår aktivt runt omkring i världen. I Sverige introducerades en ny lagstiftning 2017 som tillåter testningen av autonoma fordon på allmänna vägar. Detta har lett till att vi idag ser ett antal olika projekt runt om i landet som involverar autonoma fordon på vägarna. I Linköping bedrivs bland annat ett projekt som går ut på att testa fyra autonoma bussar av modellen Olli i en specifik stadsdel. För att undersöka risker och utmaningar kopplade till autonoma fordon valde vi att genomföra en fallstudie på Olli. Resultatet har påvisat ett antal utmaningar och risker, vissa av dem unika för projektet men ändock applicerbara på andra autonoma fordon. Utmaningarna involverar både tekniska och icke-tekniska aspekter, och vi ser utifrån dessa att balansen mellan båda delarna är viktiga att ha i åtanke under en designprocess. / Traditional vehicle manufacturers are no longer sole players on the market — IT companies like Apple and Alphabet have increased their R&D-funding and are working on their own commercialized self driving technologies. Due to more involved IT companies and an increase of IT in the vehicles, our onset is to view the autonomous vehicle as an IT product, which could result in different forms of risks and challenges. Autonomous vehicle testing is taking place around the world. In Sweden, a new legislation introduced in 2017 has made it possible to test autonomous vehicles on public roads. As a result, a number of projects involving autonomous vehicles have been initiated around the country. In Linköping, for example, there's a planned project that focuses on testing four autonomous buses of a model called Olli in a specific district. To examine risks and challenges related to autonomous vehicles we decided to do a case study of Olli. The result shows a number of risks and challenges, some of them are unique to the project but still applicable on other types of autonomous vehicles. The challenges involves both technical and non-technical aspects, and judging from these we have noticed that the balance between both parts are important to have in mind during the design process of the vehicles.

Orientadores: Janito Vaqueiro Ferreira, Arthur de Miranda Neto / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Mecânica / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-26T02:40:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 RodriguezRuiz_MariaFernanda_M.pdf: 8751418 bytes, checksum: adc682edc93b0bb96046bdc3bde2c72e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014 / Resumo: Os veiculos autônomos são uma realidade, mas seu desenvolvimento requer a altos custos. No entanto, a fim de fortalecer os avanços na robótica móvel, há um grande esforço no desenvolvimento de aplicações de baixo custo orientadas aos veículos autônomos, sendo o estudo de métodos de localização uma das áreas de maior interesse, a fim de uma navegação segura. Esta dissertação de mestrado propõe um método de localização híbrida, composto por sensores proprioceptivos e exteroceptivos, e informações adicionais como mapas digitais e reconhecimento de objetos chave, para melhorar a estimação da posição de um veículo terrestre. O sistema está baseado nas informações de posicionamento obtidas por um GPS de baixo custo e também em informações obtidas pelo método de localização referenciada, baseada em um conjunto de dados geográficos disponíveis em uma base de dados que compõe o mapa digital. A técnica de fusão de dados selecionada é baseada no filtro de Kalman estendido (EKF), que combina as informações de diferentes sistemas a fim de aumentar a robustez do sistema de localização. O desempenho do método de localização proposto é verificado através de uma plataforma de localização composta por ferramentas como um servidor de mapas baseado em OpenStreetMap e uma outra de simulação composta por ferramentas como ROS e Gazebo, que inclui um veículo terrestre com sensores embarcados, um mapa digital e objetos chave. A arquitetura selecionada é de fácil adequação para a realização de testes, já que permite simular objetos e sensores bem próximos à realidade / Abstract: The autonomous vehicles are a reality, but its development is equivalent to high costs. However, in order to strengthen the advances in mobile robotics, there is a large effort in developing low cost oriented applications to autonomous vehicles, with the study of methods of finding the area of most interest in relation to the fact achieve a navigation secure. This dissertation proposes a method of hybrid location consists of proprioceptive and exteroceptive sensors, and additional information such as digital maps and recognition of key objects, to improve the estimation of a land vehicle position. The system is based on the positioning information via GPS low cost, and information obtained by the method referenced location, based on a set of available spatial data in a database comprising the digital map. The fusion technique selected data is based on the extended Kalman filter (EKF) that combines the information of different systems in order to increase the robustness of the location system. The performance of the proposed method of location is verified through a location platform consists of a server tools like maps based on OpenStreetMap and another comprising simulation tools such as ROS and Gazebo, which includes a ground vehicle with embedded sensors, a map digital and key objects. The selected architecture is easily suitability for testing, since it allows you to simulate objects and sensors very close to reality / Mestrado / Mecanica dos Sólidos e Projeto Mecanico / Mestra em Engenharia Mecânica

Orientadores: Paulo Augusto Valente Ferreira, Samuel Siqueira Bueno / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Elétrica e de Computação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-23T20:27:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Martins_RenatoJose_M.pdf: 2887206 bytes, checksum: cfdb6978d48e6f68b3ae81fad838d7ed (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / Resumo: Esta dissertação tem como escopo o tema de localização de um veículo terrestre que evolui em ambiente externo. O trabalho consiste no desenvolvimento de técnicas de percepção sensorial capazes de fornecer estimativas de pose (posição e orientação), aspecto fundamental para toda tarefa de navegação robótica. Sucintamente, os enfoques abordados utilizam-se de diferentes classes de sensores como encoders, lasers, GPS e suas combinações, de maneira a minimizar as incertezas intrínsecas de cada sensor. A principal contribuição do trabalho está em uma nova formulação de odometria por otimização, bem como suas extensões para a estimação concomitante de polarizações. É apresentado também um esquema de estimação determinística de poses em batelada no contexto da fusão odometria-GPS, além da definição de mapeamentos por funções suaves que viabilizam o uso de medidas de orientação descontínuas. As metodologias são formuladas, avaliadas em simulação e validadas experimentalmente com a plataforma robótica do projeto VERO (Veículo Robótico de Exterior) do CTI Renato Archer / Abstract: This dissertation addresses the problem of localizing a ground vehicle that navigates in an outdoor environment. The work consists in the development of sensorial perception and odometry techniques capable of furnishing pose estimates (position and attitude), a fundamental aspect of any robotic navigation task. In short, we focus on exploring different sensor classes, such as encoders, lasers, GPSs, and their combinations, in order to minimize the intrinsic uncertainties of each sensor. The main contribution of the work is a new odometry formulation and its extension for simultaneous bias estimation. We also present a deterministic batch estimation framework for the odometry-GPS fusion, as well as the definition of mappings by smooth functions of the orientation state component that allow the use of discontinuous heading measures. Methodologies are formulated, analysed in simulation and experimentaly validated using the VERO ("VEículo RObótico de Exterior", in Portuguese) robotic platform / Mestrado / Automação / Mestre em Engenharia Elétrica

Highways play a vivacious role in a country's economic growth, by facilitating movement of both goods and people from one place to another. Over a short period of time, innovation in automobile and information technology has seen an unprecedented growth and this exploratory research highlights the impact of advent of innovative technologies like Autonomous and Connected Vehicles, Internet of Things applications and Big Data analytics on highway operators, as reflected in the opinions of organizations around the world (highway operators, toll agencies, suppliers, consultants and associations). The opinions were collected on a Likert scale type online survey, which was later tested for its empirical significance with non-parametric Binomial and Wilcoxon signed rank tests, supported by descriptive analysis. The research results clearly indicate that these technologies and products are not far from realization and while on one hand they would facilitate highway operations on the other hand they may pose some serious challenges for operators.

The urban population is growing at an exponential rate throughout the world leading to the problems related to swift and speedy mobility or issues caused by convectional mobility options. This study illustrates and explores the new ways to transport people specially taking into account the self-driving cars concept and discusses the concept of mobility 4.0 (smart / intelligent mobility) and briefly highlights the technological aspects of autonomous vehicles, adaptation advantages and progress in laws and legislations of autonomous vehicle. The study is primarily qualitative and relies on the work of previous researcher, technical reports and blogs but the part of this study is quantitative where empirical data was collected from the experts in a conference held by BBG Austria. The result of the studies shows adaptation readiness of Austrian professional market and business prospects associated with autonomous vehicles Moreover, different business models are suggested, which could be adopted to incorporate the driverless vehicles in day-to-day life of an individual living in urban environment. The models basically suggest that the adaptation of the technology would help curbing transport externalities especially external cost associated to transportation of each individual; which includes congestion, accident, infrastructure costs and environmental costs which are incurred by least efficient conventional cars and would also help shrinking the diseases like premature mortality, aggravation of respiratory as well as cardiovascular disease and sleep disturbance which are the result of city level congestion and pollution. (author's abstract) / Series: Schriftenreihe des Instituts für Transportwirtschaft und Logistik - Verkehr

In an ever-changing industry where competition between actors is growing, technical improvements and investments can be a way to outperform competitors and gain competitiveadvantages. In a relatively under-developed industry, technological developments may leadto major improvements and change the layout of the whole business. Purpose – The main purpose of this thesis is to investigate potential cost reductions obtained by autonomous vehicles within the Swedish logistics industry. Studying opportunities for companies tostrengthen their competitive advantage can create new markets, chances or ensure a strongmarket position. To investigate said opportunities, the following research questions werestated: What is the actual cost of implementing an autonomous vehicle? Which costs will be affected by an implementation of autonomous vehicles? How do these costs impact the Swedish logistics market seen from a cost perspective? Method – The data necessary to answer the questions was collected from document studies, literature studies and interviews. These were carried out simultaneously in an iterativeprocess. Moreover, a pragmatic philosophy was undertaken, together with an abductive approach. The data was compared with existing theory by pattern matching and analysed withthematic approach, in order to ensure the level of trustworthiness. Findings/Implications – The findings of this thesis is that autonomous vehicles willheavily impact the logistics industry. By gradually implementing autonomous vehicles, theSwedish logistics sector can save upwards of 13,4 billion SEK between 2020 and 2030.This shift towards autonomous vehicles will move jobs from the long haul sector to urbanlogistics and telecommunications. Additionally, the society will see great benefits as 90% ofall traffic accidents will not happen when all vehicles are autonomous. It is clear that theSwedish logistics industry will benefit from an implementation of autonomous vehicles.Simultaneously it will also be beneficial for the society and the Swedish welfare. Limitations – The major limitation of this thesis is the time horizon. Because of being future oriented, much data was based on external estimations that might change over time.Moreover, only costs directly connected to transportations has been investigated, leavingroom for further studies related to indirect costs, as well as the organizational impacts onfuture supply chains.

With the fast development of 5G networks and the advancement in networking technologies, more and more new technologies such as internet of vehicles (IoV) is catching our eyes. With technologies of artificial intelligence and automatic control, IoV is transformed into an intelligent transportation system (ITS). The object of this thesis is to analyze the connectivity probability issues in vehicle ad hoc networks (VANETs), which is a subset of ITS. This will be achieved by a platoon-based two dimensional model. In order to make the results more accurate and more close to real scenario, different situations will be analyzed separately, and different types of platoon will be included. In addition, other system parameters are also discussed and stimulated. The results show that many parameters like the increases of traffic density, ratio of platoon, and lane numbers will improve connectivity probability. No-leader based platoons are easier to connect to the base stations compared to leader based platoons.

This master thesis deals with the design of a traffic sign detector using the image processing methods. The OpenCV library for working with images in programming language Python is used for this. The first part reports on the using methods. In the next part, these methods were tested on images of traffic signs taken in traffic in different lighting conditions. The results of these tests led to the design of optimal methods and their settings, which were re-verified by verifying on video of driving in traffic. This also revealed the conditions under which they can operate in real-time systems. Finally, an optimization algorithm for compensation of detection errors was proposed from the monitoring of detection waveforms.