ICab Use Case for ROS-based Architecture

Abstract

In the Intelligent Transportation Systems Community, the research interest in intelligent and autonomous vehicles is increasing during the last few years. Accordingly, this paper presents the advances in the development of a ROS-based (Robot Operating System) software architecture for intelligent vehicles. The main contribution of the architecture is its powerfulness (in the aspect of complete architecture managing the navigation, synchronization, communication, cooperation, ground station, web server, sound system), flexibility (due to the fact that autonomous vehicles evolve exponentially where new sensors or algorithms emerge every day), and modularity (in the form of interchangeability and replaceability for new modules), which allow researchers to develop and test different algorithms easily and faster. The architecture has been tested on two real platforms such as the iCab (Intelligent Campus Automobile) and IvvI 2.0 vehicle (Intelligent Vehicle based on Visual Information) The first one is a full y autonomous vehicle and the second one provides Advance Driver Assistance. Additionally, it is shown the use case for the iCab project where the scope is focused on the critical element of navigation. The use case exposed proves the benefits of using this architecture over a centralized one.