Multi-Sensor Integration for Self-Driving Vehicle

This study presents the design and development of a vehicle platform with intelligent sensors that has the capabilities to drive independently and cooperatively on roads. An integrated active safety system has been designed to optimize the human senses using ultrasonic and infrared sensors and wireless transmitter/receiver modules, to increase the human vision, feel and communication for increased road safety, lower congestion rates, and decrease CO2 emissions. The intelligent vehicle relies on sensor values obtained from the environment to make appropriate decisions to ensure its safety and the safety of neighboring vehicles. Ultrasonic sensors emitted longitudinal mechanical 40 KHz waves and received echoes of these sound waves when an object is within its direction and the duration is converted to a distance measurement to detect obstacles as well as using distance measurement threshold values to implement adaptive cruise control. Infrared sensors equipped with an IR LED and a bipolar transistor detected a change in light intensity to identify road lanes. The wireless modules are used for vehicle-to-vehicle communication, where vehicles communicate their current speed and acceleration to each other in order to maintain a constant distance and avoid collisions and traffic congestion. The intelligent vehicle is capable of implementing adaptive cruise control, obstacle avoidance, lane keeping/changing, emergency braking, and vehicle-to-vehicle communication. There is a current complication such that the ultrasonic sensor’s measurements are inaccurate when implementing the wireless transmitter and receiver modules with the intelligent system. The transmitter and receiver modules use a library that conflicts with the ultrasonic sensor’s timer as well as the DC motor’s pulse input timer. It has been decided to use a different communication module to ensure that the active safety system accurately works simultaneously. Under development in this research is to add a vision system and image processing techniques to detect road lanes, obstacles, and traffic lights or signs and also a fusion between a GPS module, rotary encoder and inertial sensor able to self-drive and see incoming traffic not in sight yet in a city environment