WATonoBus - All Weather Waterloo Autonomous Shuttle Bus: A Testbed for Automated Divining and V2X Connectivity

WATonoBus - 全天候滑铁卢自主班车：自动占卜和 V2X 连接的测试平台

• 批准号: RTI-2021-00058
• 负责人: Khajepour, Amir
• 金额: $ 10.93万
• 依托单位: University of Waterloo
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Research Tools and Instruments
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=718778
• 关键词: WATonoBus; Weather; Waterloo; Autonomous; Shuttle

In 2019, the Waterloo Mechatronic Vehicle Systems (MVS) Lab initiated the WATonoBus (https://uwaterloo.ca/watonobus/), Canada's first all-weather autonomous shuttle bus to safely drive autonomously in any weather condition on the UW's 2.7km Ring Road. WATonoBus is equipped with different sensors for perception and automated driving and, currently, four more shuttle buses are being instrumented to establish a fleet of five autonomous buses, a world-class testbed for autonomous urban driving research in Canada. Waterloo's Ring Road circles the UW campus, connecting our main buildings, parking lots, and bus and train stations. It has several intersections and crowded parts with pedestrians, cyclists, and vehicles representing a unique test environment for research on autonomous driving in urban city environments. In this application, we request funding to equip one kilometer of Ring Road with stand-alone infrastructure sensor nodes to advance higher vehicle autonomy (Level 4 and 5) in complex urban driving. The addition of these sensor nodes to our WATonoBus fleet will establish the largest connected autonomous shuttle bus research test platform in any university in the world. Each of the infrastructure sensor nodes proposed in this RTI application will include a Lidar, camera, edge computing unit, 5G communication module, and a solar-based power unit. The sensor units will be mounted to the existing light posts on the Ring Road to provide the information needed for the automated driving of the shuttle buses. This has become possible through the recent Rogers Communications and the University of Waterloo partnership to create a 5G wireless network-enabled smart campus. The addition of these sensor nodes to the Ring Road and their integration into the WATonoBus fleet will enable urgently needed breakthroughs in reliable cooperative navigation through V2X connectivity (vehicle to vehicle, vehicle to infrastructure, vehicle to cloud, etc.), advance level 4 and 5 autonomous driving, and cloud-based operation of autonomous fleet through 5G network. All are crucial to realizing automated driving in city cores and high vehicle autonomy, and the competitiveness of Canada's automotive industry.

2019年，滑铁卢机电车辆系统（MVS）实验室启动了WATonoBus (https://uwaterloo.ca/watonobus/)，这是加拿大第一辆全天候自动穿梭巴士，可以在任何天气条件下在华盛顿大学2.7公里的环路上安全自动驾驶。WATonoBus配备了不同的感知和自动驾驶传感器，目前正在对另外四辆穿梭巴士进行检测，以建立一个由五辆自动驾驶巴士组成的车队，这是加拿大自动城市驾驶研究的世界级测试平台。