In 2011 and 2012, I was the lead system architect and programmer in the Scoop project . Scoop was a collaboration between researchers at KTH and the Scania truck company. The objective was to add limited self-driving capabilities to a Scania production-series truck (the R730) and participate in the Grand Cooperative Driving Challenge (GCDC) . GCDC was an international competition organized in Helmond, the Netherlands, with the objective of demonstrating autonomous vehicle platooning. In a platooning scenario, vehicles continuously broadcast information like their own position, velocity etc., while the infrastructure broadcasts information like current speed limits and traffic light status. The broadcasted information is used by the vehicles to form a tight platoon i.e. a “road train”. Within a platoon, vehicles may drive very closely behind one another, at high speeds. The motion of the vehicles is autonomous i.e. the human driver does not interact with the driving functionality.
Scoop and GCDC 2011
In May 2011, the Scoop team successfully participated in the Grand Cooperative Driving Challenge (GCDC) at Helmond, the Netherlands. We reached 4th position in the overall rankings.
I designed the overall technical architecture and programmed a significant part of the real-time component framework.
The Scoop technical report is available, along with a peer reviewed journal publication describing our overall solution.
Scoop and CoAct 2012
All three Swedish teams in the GCDC 2011 had excellent results, finishing among the top four. To retain the momentum, a follow-up event was organized in Sweden, where an additional team from Linköping University was invited to participate. This event was referred to as CoAct 2012, CoAct being the umbrella organization handling the three Swedish teams in GCDC 2011.
CoAct 2012 introduced a requirement for permitting autonomous overtaking within a platoon. This implied that the vehicles should be able to autonomously switch lanes, overtake, maneuver to create the necessary gaps and merge back into the platoon.
The Scoop team’s solution developed for the GCDC 2011 was shared with Linköping University and then further refined to meet the requirements for CoAct 2012. As in Scoop, I designed the overall technical architecture and programmed a significant part of the real-time component framework.
On November 23, 2012 the Scoop team was part of a successful demonstration at the Stora Holm test track on the outskirts of Gothenburg, Sweden.