Automated Highways and the Free Agent Demonstration
Abstract
In August of 1997, The US National Automated Highway System Consortium (NAHSC) presented a proof of technical feasibility demonstration of automated driving. The 97 Demo took place on car-pool lanes on I-15 in San Diego, California. Members of the Consortium demonstrated many different functions, including:
- Vision-based road following
- Lane departure warning
- Magnetic nail following
- Radar reflective strip following
- Radar-based headway maintenance
- Ladar-based headway maintenance
- Partial automation and evolutionary systems
- Close vehicle following (platooning)
- Cooperative maneuvering
- Obstacle detection and avoidance
- Mixed automated and manual driving
- Mixed automated cars and buses
- Semi-automated maintenance operations
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) led the effort to build the Free Agent Demonstration (FAD). The FAD involved two fully-automated cars, one partially-automated car, and two fully-automated city buses. The scenario demonstrated speed and headway control, lane following, lane changing, obstacle detection, and cooperative obstacle avoidance maneuvers. This paper describes the demonstration itself, the technology that made the demonstration possible, and the current efforts to turn the demonstration system into a practical prototype.
BibTeX
@conference{Thorpe-1997-14492,author = {Chuck Thorpe and Todd Jochem and Dean Pomerleau},
title = {Automated Highways and the Free Agent Demonstration},
booktitle = {Proceedings of 8th International Symposium on Robotics Research (ISRR '97)},
year = {1997},
month = {October},
pages = {246 - 254},
}